Computational Drug Design Applied to the Study of Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors

Abstract

Metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptors are a family of eight GPCRs that are attractive drug discovery targets to modulate glutamate action and response. Here we review the application of computational methods to the study of this family of receptors. X-ray structures of the extracellular and 7-transmembrane domains have played an important role to enable structure-based modeling approaches, whilst we also discuss the successful application of ligand-based methods. We summarize the literature and highlight the areas where modeling and experiment have delivered important understanding for mGlu receptor drug discovery. Finally, we offer suggestions of future areas of opportunity for computational work.

Keywords

• mGlu
• mGluR
• homology model
• virtual screening
• molecular dynamics
• allosteric modulator
• GPCR
• ligand-based design
• structure-based design