Progress toward therapeutic potential for AFQ056 in Fragile X syndrome

Molecular Mechanisms of Synaptic Dysregulation in Fragile X Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorders

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common form of monogenic hereditary cognitive impairment. FXS patient exhibit a high comorbidity rate with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This makes FXS a model disease for understanding how synaptic dysregulation alters neuronal excitability, learning and memory, social behavior, and more. Since 1991, with the discovery of fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) as the sole gene that is mutated in FXS, thousands of studies into the function of the gene and its encoded protein FMR1 protein (FMRP), have been conducted, yielding important information regarding the pathophysiology of the disease, as well as insight into basic synaptic mechanisms that control neuronal networking and circuitry. Among the most important, are molecular mechanisms directly involved in plasticity, including glutamate and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors, which can control synaptic transmission and signal transduction, including short- and long-term plasticity. More recently, several novel mechanisms involving growth factors, enzymatic cascades and transcription factors (TFs), have been proposed to have the potential of explaining some of the synaptic dysregulation in FXS. In this review article, I summarize the main mechanisms proposed to underlie synaptic disruption in FXS and ASDs. I focus on studies conducted on the Fmr1 knock-out (KO) mouse model and on FXS-human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), emphasizing the differences and even contradictions between mouse and human, whenever possible. As FXS and ASDs are both neurodevelopmental disorders that follow a specific time-course of disease progression, I highlight those studies focusing on the differential developmental regulation of synaptic abnormalities in these diseases.

Computational Advances for the Development of Allosteric Modulators and Bitopic Ligands in G Protein-Coupled Receptors

Allosteric modulators of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), which target at allosteric sites, have significant advantages against the corresponding orthosteric compounds including higher selectivity, improved chemical tractability or physicochemical properties, and reduced risk of receptor oversensitization. Bitopic ligands of GPCRs target both orthosteric and allosteric sites. Bitopic ligands can improve binding affinity, enhance subtype selectivity, stabilize receptors, and reduce side effects. Discovering allosteric modulators or bitopic ligands for GPCRs has become an emerging research area, in which the design of allosteric modulators is a key step in the detection of bitopic ligands. Radioligand binding and functional assays ([(35)S]GTPγS and ERK1/2 phosphorylation) are used to test the effects for potential modulators or bitopic ligands. High-throughput screening (HTS) in combination with disulfide trapping and fragment-based screening are used to aid the discovery of the allosteric modulators or bitopic ligands of GPCRs. When used alone, these methods are costly and can often result in too many potential drug targets, including false positives. Alternatively, low-cost and efficient computational approaches are useful in drug discovery of novel allosteric modulators and bitopic ligands to help refine the number of targets and reduce the false-positive rates. This review summarizes the state-of-the-art computational methods for the discovery of modulators and bitopic ligands. The challenges and opportunities for future drug discovery are also discussed.

iPSC-derived neurons as a higher-throughput readout for autism: promises and pitfalls

The elucidation of disease etiologies and establishment of robust, scalable, high-throughput screening assays for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have been impeded by both inaccessibility of disease-relevant neuronal tissue and the genetic heterogeneity of the disorder. Neuronal cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from autism patients may circumvent these obstacles and serve as relevant cell models. To date, derived cells are characterized and screened by assessing their neuronal phenotypes. These characterizations are often etiology-specific or lack reproducibility and stability. In this review, we present an overview of efforts to study iPSC-derived neurons as a model for autism, and we explore the plausibility of gene expression profiling as a reproducible and stable disease marker.