Nellie E. Byun1,2, Elizabeth A. Hackler1,2, Carrie K. Jones3, Jason M. Williams1,2, Malcolm Avison2,3, P. Jeffrey Conn3, John C. Gore1,2
1Radiology & Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; 2Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Nashville, TN, USA; 3Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
We utilized pharmacologic MRI to evaluate the therapeutic potential of a metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 2 potentiator, biphenyl indanone-A, in the phencyclidine (PCP) rat model predictive of schizophrenia. Here we show that mGluR2 potentiation attenuates the PCP-induced BOLD response in anesthetized rats in specific brain regions, including the prefrontal cortex, caudate-putamen, and thalamus, which correlate with behavioral data. These findings bolster the growing body of evidence that mGluR2 is a viable target for the treatment of schizophrenia.