G-protein coupled receptors' usage and chemogenetics are nowadays the targets for many of the pharmaceutical companies to cure and alleviate symptoms of diseases that involve all tissues of the body. More specifically, DREADDs have been used to explore treatment options for various neurodegenerative and psychological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, depression, anxiety, and addiction. These aforementioned conditions involve processes that occur within and outside of the nervous system involving neurotransmitters such as gamma-aminobutyric acid and glutamate. Chemogenetics has therefore been used in pharmacology to adjust the levels of such neurotransmitters in specific neuron while minimizing the side effects of treatment. To treat and relieve the symptoms of any disease using the DREADDs, these receptors are delivered to the area of interest via viral transduction.
Recently some studies have considered using a new method called retro DREADDs. This method allows specific neuronal pathways to be studied under cellular resolution. Unlike classic DREADDs, this method is usually used in wild type animals, and these receptors are given to the targeted cells via injection of two viral vectors.