There is a long history of targeting the cholinergic system to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia1 and a growing body of data that suggests that the muscarinic receptors are affected by the pathophysiology of the disorder2. This presentation will review the evidence to suggest it is the cortical muscarinic 1 receptor (CHRM1) that is primarily affected by the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and that the likely outcome of stimulating this receptor would be to bring about improvements in the cognitive deficits suffered by people with the disorder. Improving the cognitive deficits in people with schizophrenia would be significant as these deficits are not malleable to treatment with currently available antipsychotic drugs3 and are the most debilitating symptoms of the disorder4. Therefore there is a clear and urgent need to develop drugs that can lessen the impact of cognitive deficits. This presentation will include a review of how recent studies suggest stimulating CHRM1 will improve the cognitive deficits of schizophrenia and how this may be achieve by using a new class of drugs, CHRM1 allosteric modulators.

References:
1. Scarr E, Dean B. Role of the cholinergic system in the pathology and treatment of schizophrenia. Expert Rev.Neurother. (2009) 9:73-86
2. Raedler TJ, Bymaster FP, Tandon R, Copolov D, Dean B. Towards a muscarinic hypothesis of schizophrenia. Mol.Psychiatry (2007) 12:232-46
3. Hill SK, Bishop JR, Palumbo D, Sweeney JA. Effect of second-generation antipsychotics on cognition: current issues and future challenges. Expert.Rev.Neurother. (2010) 10:43-57.
4. Peuskens J, Demily C, Thibaut F. Treatment of cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia. Clinical Therapeutics (2005) 27(Supplement 1):S25-S37