Molecular pharmacology of mGlu7/8 heterodimers reveals unique properties of orthosteric agonists and positive allosteric modulators
Anthony S Ferranti, Youhyun Noh, Xia Lei, Xin Lin, Joseph D Bungard, Wesley B Asher, Jonathan A Javitch, Colleen M Niswender · 2026
Read Molecular pharmacology of mGlu7/8 heterodimers reveals unique properties of orthosteric agonists and positive allosteric modulators by Anthony S Ferranti, Youhyun Noh, Xia Lei, Xin Lin, Joseph D Bungard, Wesley B Asher, Jonathan A Javitch, Colleen M Niswender (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13430957.txt.
Description
Ferranti and colleagues mapped how drugs act on paired glutamate receptors in the brain. They focused on mixed mGlu7/8 heterodimers, two receptor units joined together. Those were compared with the uniform pairs each unit forms alone. These receptors tune how synapses behave. Mixed pairs are thought to carry distinct roles and drug reactions in the hippocampus.
Using built cells with fixed receptor mixes, the team tested direct activators. They also tested positive allosteric modulators, drugs that boost a receptor's response to its natural signal. One mGlu8-selective activator worked only on uniform mGlu8 pairs. It blocked the mixed pair in their assays. In contrast, the modulator VU0155094 showed greater strength at the mixed pair than at either uniform pair in certain tests. The authors argue this unique drug fingerprint backs screening for mixed-pair selective compounds. Such toolkits could also probe native brain tissue.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Anthony S Ferranti, Youhyun Noh, Xia Lei, Xin Lin, Joseph D Bungard, Wesley B Asher, Jonathan A Javitch, Colleen M Niswender |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 70 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |