Protein / target
Glutamate receptor ionotropic, NMDA 3A
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Glycine-gated cation channel
Strongest disease association
Alzheimer's Disease
Therapeutic position
Established drug target
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function overview
Component of a non-conventional N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors (NMDARs) that function as heterotetrameric, ligand-gated cation channels with low calcium permeability and low voltage-dependent block by Mg(2+).
View complete UniProt function annotationHide complete annotation
Component of a non-conventional N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors (NMDARs) that function as heterotetrameric, ligand-gated cation channels with low calcium permeability and low voltage-dependent block by Mg(2+) (By similarity). During the development of neural circuits, participates in the synaptic refinement period, restricting spine maturation and growth (By similarity). Forms glutamatergic receptor complexes with GluN1 and GluN2 subunits which are activated by glycine binding to the GluN1 and GluN3 subunits and L-glutamate binding to GluN2 subunits (By similarity). Forms excitatory glycinergic receptor complexes with GluN1 alone which are activated by glycine binding to the GluN1 and GluN3 subunits (PubMed:38598639). GluN3A subunit also binds D-serine (By similarity). Each GluN3 subunit confers differential attributes to channel properties, including activation, deactivation and desensitization kinetics, pH sensitivity, Ca2(+) permeability, and binding to allosteric modulators (By similarity). By competing with GIT1 interaction with ARHGEF7/beta-PIX, may reduce GIT1/ARHGEF7-regulated local activation of RAC1, hence affecting signaling and limiting the maturation and growth of inactive synapses (By similarity)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (32)Hide
Gene Ontology
- Cendoplasmic reticulum membrane
- Cglutamatergic synapse
- Cmembrane
- Cneuron projection
- Cneuronal cell body
- Cneurotransmitter receptor complex
- CNMDA selective glutamate receptor complex
- Cplasma membrane
- Cpostsynaptic density membrane
- Cpostsynaptic membrane
- Cpresynapse
- Csynapse
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
View supporting evidenceHide supporting evidence
Excitatory neurotransmission
- ·Component of a non-conventional N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors (NMDARs) that func…
- ·glutamatergic synapse
- ·synaptic transmission, glutamatergic
Ligand-gated signalling
- ·Component of a non-conventional N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors (NMDARs) that func…
- ·transmitter-gated monoatomic ion channel activity involved in regulation of postsynaptic…
Ion channel gating
- ·glycine-gated cation channel activity
- ·transmitter-gated monoatomic ion channel activity involved in regulation of postsynaptic…
- ·monoatomic cation transmembrane transport
Inhibitory neurotransmission
- ·Component of a non-conventional N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors (NMDARs) that func…
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
Approved medicines with mapped indications
Approved therapies targeting this protein, grouped by what they are approved to treat — the disease-first view of the medicines below. Relationships come from the canonical approved-indication graph (ChEMBL phase-4), the same source as the drug cards.
13 medicines meet Open Targets' target-level approved-medicine definition; the 1 shown here are those on this page with a canonical approved disease indication in the graph. Approved indications from ChEMBL (phase-4), via the canonical drug→disease graph.
Drugs targeting this protein
How approved and investigational drugs engage this protein — mechanism and action type, direct vs complex targeting, and how broadly each acts across other targets. A drug-first view (the section above groups the approved ones disease-first); direct binders with few recorded targets are listed first.
Glutamate [NMDA] receptor negative allosteric modulator
Indicated for Depressive Disorder
ChEMBL mechanism, action type, target identity and approved indications. Open Targets clinical status.
Translational evidence
Why this target matters therapeutically, strongest evidence first. Disease associations are gene-level (via the gene that encodes this protein) and open into the full confidence synthesis; the development universe, tractability and safety annotations are target-level, from Open Targets.
Strongest disease associations · via encoding gene GRIN3A
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene GRIN3Athat encodes this protein — not a direct protein–disease relationship. Ranked by Forefront's causal-directness weighting, so genetically- and clinically-evidenced diseases lead over ones that merely share the literature.
View evidence synthesis (5)Hide
The evidence agreement range shows how closely the independent evidence families agree — it is not a statistical confidence interval, and nothing here is fitted to outcome data. Derived from Open Targets evidence types under Forefront weighting; the per-type scores above show the calculation.
Show all associationsHide all associations
Drug development
27 compounds recorded · 13 approved · 14 in clinical development
View all recorded compounds (10)Hide
Open Targets known-drugs universe. Drug name and highest clinical stage only — the disease relationship is NOT read from this slice (it carries trial-context noise); approved indications come from the canonical graph above.
Tractability
Small molecules — Strong
Antibodies — Emerging
Protein degraders — Emerging
Other modalities — Strong
View underlying tractability evidence (9)Hide
Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.
Safety-related annotations
Terms indexed against this target in Open Targets' safety data, with their datasource. These are annotations, not causal claims: the direction of effect (whether activation or inhibition is implicated), species and evidence strength are not captured here, so an entry does not mean that modulating this target is known to cause that condition.
Clinical trials
Trials of drugs that target this protein — reached indirectly through those drugs, so a trial listed here studies the drug, not the protein. Ranked by active status, then clinical phase and recency, and spread across the targeting drugs.
View all trials (26)Hide
ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.