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What could be the benefits of moving the treatment paradigm for serious neuropsychiatric disorders towards earlier intervention, and what is needed to achieve this?
Michael Hanson, president of the GPCR Consortium, discusses how industry and academic partners are shedding light on one of the most important classes of drug targets.
Over the past decade, the drug–target residence time model has been broadly applied to drug discovery programmes across multiple therapeutic areas. To mark the 10 year anniversary of this model, Copeland discusses the benefits of assessing residence time, highlighting some of the advances in its theory and application.
Optogenetics has already had a major impact on neuroscience research, particularly in the study of cognitive and emotional processes. Here, Song and Knöpfel discuss emerging applications of optogenetic technologies, focusing on their potential to transform neuroscience drug discovery programmes and to provide novel therapeutic approaches for conditions such as Parkinson disease, mood disorders and epilepsy.
CNS myeloid cells mediate the local immune response during development, health and brain diseases and are emerging as potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Here, Biber and colleagues assess strategies for targeting CNS myeloid cells and consider key issues associated with their clinical translation.
Cells within the microvascular compartment, particularly leukocytes, can affect angiogenesis, inflammation and fibrosis. Kreuger and Phillipson discuss how to target these cells therapeutically, focusing on ways to interfere with intracellular communication and reprogramme leukocytes, which could have applications in the design of drugs and their delivery systems.
