Chemogenetics: drug-controlled gene therapies for neural circuit disorders

Cell & Gene Therapy Insights 2020; 6(7), 1079–1094

10.18609/cgti.2020.112

Published: 8 September 2020
Commentary
Scott M Sternson, David Bleakman

Many patients with nervous system disorders have considerable unmet clinical needs or suffer debilitating drug side effects. A major limitation of exiting treatment approaches is that traditional small molecule pharmacotherapy lacks sufficient specificity to effectively treat many neurological diseases. Chemogenetics is a new gene therapy technology that targets an engineered receptor to cell types involved in nervous system dysfunction, enabling highly selective drug-controlled neuromodulation. Here, we discuss chemogenetic platforms and considerations for their potential application as human nervous system therapies.