New research reveals that drugs that increase the activity of a receptor in the brain called mGlu5 have exciting potential to treat learning and memory loss associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery has recently discovered novel drug candidates that increase the activity of mGlu5 and are now advancing to clinical testing in patients with schizophrenia. Studies outlined in the research proposal entitled "In Vivo Characterization of Novel mGlu5 PAMs in Aged Rats" seek to establish the ability of our novel drugs to reverse deficits in learning and memory in a preclinical model of AD that accurately emulates the human disease state. If successful, this research would pave the way for expanding the clinical development plan of mGlu5 PAMs and allow further clinical studies to test the utility of these drug candidates for the treatment of learning and memory deficits associated with AD.