Novel dipyrazoles acting as glutamate modulators

Knowing the potential therapeutic interest of AMPA potentiation, patents have been published for 15 years relating the discovery of novel compounds able to allosterically bind to the AMPA receptors and leading to a potentiation of the AMPA signals. Besides this classical approach, a new target for the medicinal chemist has been defined due to the recent findings describing the modulation of AMPA receptors by neuronal proteins, and has led to the design of dipyrazole compounds by Aventis. These new dipyrazole derivatives may be considered as `indirect AMPApams', constituting a new pharmacological class. Based on their in vitro activity, it is probable that these compounds could be of therapeutic value for the treatment of cognitive disorders, schizophrenia or depression.