Positive allosteric modulators that target NMDA receptors rectify loss-of-function GRIN variants associated with neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Weiting Tang, Emory University; Ding Liu, Emory University; Stephen Traynelis, Emory University; Hongjie Yuan, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2020-10-15
• Publisher: PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropharm.2020.108247
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: NEUROPHARMACOLOGY
• Volume: 177
• Start Page: 108247
• End Page: 108247
• Keywords: Translational study; Channelopathy; Glutamate receptors; PATIENT; PREGNENOLONE SULFATE; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; DE-NOVO MUTATIONS; Endogenous neurosteroid; PHENOTYPE; RARE VARIANTS; Neurosciences; SPECTRUM; EPILEPSY; TRAFFICKING; Pharmacology & Pharmacy; Neurosciences & Neurology; ENCEPHALOPATHY; Rescue pharmacology; D-SERINE; Science & Technology

Abstract

N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) mediate a slow component of excitatory synaptic transmission that plays important roles in normal brain function and development. A large number of disease-associated variants in the GRIN gene family encoding NMDAR GluN subunits have been identified in patients with various neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. Many of these variants reduce the function of NMDARs by a range of different mechanisms, including reduced glutamate potency, reduced glycine potency, accelerated deactivation time course, decreased surface expression, and/or reduced open probability. We have evaluated whether three positive allosteric modulators of NMDAR receptor function (24(S)-hydroxycholesterol, pregnenolone sulfate, tobramycin) and three co-agonists (D-serine, L-serine, and D-cycloserine) can mitigate the diminished function of NMDARs harboring GRIN variants. We examined the effects of these modulators on NMDARs that contained 21 different loss-of-function variants in GRIN1, GRIN2A, or GRIN2B, identified in patients with epilepsy, intellectual disability, autism, and/or movement disorders. For all variants, some aspect of the reduced function was partially restored. Moreover, some variants showed enhanced sensitivity to positive allosteric modulators compared to wild type receptors. These results raise the possibility that enhancement of NMDAR function by positive allosteric modulators may be a useful therapeutic strategy.