RGS proteins: impact on the treatment of depression and anxiety

Regulators of G protein signalling (RGS) proteins were first found to limit heterotrimer G protein signalling by accelerating the hydrolysis of GTP-bound to Ga subunits, thereby terminating receptor pathway sig-nalling. Subsequently, RGS proteins have been found to act as scaffolding proteins, to interact directly and selectively to G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and to act as effector modulators (Ghavami et al. 2004; McCoy & Hepler, 2009). Through all of these interac-tions, RGS proteins act to negatively regulate signal-ling pathways. The selective interactions that occur among GPCRs, G proteins and RGS proteins provide an opportunity for more selective drug targeting to a specific complex of these proteins, (McCoy & Hepler, 2009; Shankaranarayanan et al. 2008) rathe