Selective activation of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors for the treatment of schizophrenia

Abstract

It is being increasingly recognised that the future of drug development will need to be based on a comprehensive understanding of disease pathophysiology. Thus this review focuses on a growing body of information suggesting that decreases in muscarinic receptors are involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. This review will address evidence to support the hypothesis that drugs that can increase the activity of muscarinic receptors have the potential to have antipsychotic affects and improve cognitive deficits in subjects with the schizophrenia. How drugs directed towards allosteric binding sites are overcoming the problem of using orthosteric receptor agonists in the treatment of dis..