Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology Approaches to Investigate Prospective Treatments for CNS Diseases

Using techniques in Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology, this thesis investigates novel prospective treatments for central nervous system disorders, namely schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease. The dopamine receptors are heavily implicated in these diseases, and were the focus of this work. Small molecule allosteric modulators of these receptor systems interact with their receptor target in a unique way, and show promise as improved prospective treatments. As such, the identification of novel modulators that bind to this receptor system and the study of the way in which they influence chemical signalling was conducted through organic synthesis and molecular pharmacology studies.