Journal of Clinical Medicine Review The G Protein-Coupled Glutamate Receptors as Novel Molecular Targets in Schizophrenia Treatment— A Narrative Review Waldemar Kryszkowski 1 and Tomasz Boczek 2,* 1 General Psychiatric Ward, Babinski Memorial Hospital in Lodz, 91229 Lodz, Poland;
[email protected] 2 Department of Molecular Neurochemistry, Medical University of Lodz, 92215 Lodz, Poland * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: Schizophrenia is a severe neuropsychiatric disease with an unknown etiology. The research into the neurobiology of this disease led to several models aimed at explaining the link between perturbations in brain function and the manifestation of psychotic symptoms. The glutamatergic hypothesis postulates that disrupted glutamate neurotransmission may mediate cognitive and psychosocial impairments by affecting the connections between the cortex and the thalamus. In this regard, the greatest attention has been given to ionotropic NMDA receptor hypofunction. However, converging data indicates metabotropic glutamate receptors as crucial for cognitive and psychomotor function. The distribution of these receptors in the brain regions related to schizophrenia and their regulatory role in glutamate release make them promising molecular targets for novel antipsychotics. This article reviews the progress in the research on the role of metabotropic glutamate receptors in schizophrenia etiopathology. Citation: Kryszkowski, W.; Boczek, T. The G Protein-Coupled Glutamate Keywords: schizophrenia; metabotropic glutamate receptors; positive allosteric modulators; negative Receptors as Novel Molecular Targets allosteric modulators; drug development; animal models of schizophrenia; clinical trials in Schizophrenia Treatment—A Narrative Review. J. Clin. Med. 2021, 10, 1475. https://doi.org/10.3390/ jcm10071475 1. Introduction Academic Editors: Andreas Reif, Schizophrenia is a common debilitating disease affecting about 0.3–1% of the human Blazej Misiak and Jerzy Samochowiec population worldwide [1].