“Rescue of NMDARs in either adolescence or adulthood yields surprisingly strong improvements in higher-order behavior. Similar levels of behavioral plasticity are observed regardless of intervention age, with degree of plasticity dependent on the specific behavioral circuit. These results reveal higher-order brain function as amenable to treatment in adulthood and identify NMDAR as a key target for cognitive dysfunction.”
I read the pdf, which I can’t link, but the short version is that in an NMDA receptor hypo function genetic model of sz in mice, even in adulthood, when the NMDAR function was restored, function was fully or partially restored in the mice. The types of functions that were amenable to complete restoration were in areas of the brain with greater adult plasticity, and they included cognitive and social function.
In the author’s conclusion, (paraphrasing) they stated that while a way to do this in humans has yet to be discovered, that it may be possible to administer it even in adulthood with good results.
It is not a new drug, they genetically altered the mice and then corrected the defect. It was just to show that the problems caused by NMDAR dysfunction could be rescued in later life. This is important because there’s a lot of brain development that has already happened by adulthood. However, some of those brain circuits are plastic. The ones that did not get much better were for the mice versions of mania and prepulse inhibibition. But the negative symptoms of cognitive impairment and impaired sociability got better.
Seems like that’s all we have right now, but perhaps new drugs will be able to be developed. Or gene therapy. The great thing about this is it suggests it would still be able to help adults.
It’s a d amino acid oxidase inhibitor. It’s supposed to enhance NMDAR function, I don’t think anyone’s saying it’s going to completely reverse NMDAR hypo function. But that’s likely the source of its benefit for negative symptoms.