They are able to inhibit (e.g. the phenothiazine FD-44) or stabilize (e.g. the acylhydrazone 3b) the formation of the NCS-1/Ric-8A complex and in doing so, they regulate synapse number and function and show a promising prospect in the treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders (Mansilla et al., 2017; Cogram et al., 2022) and neurodegenerative diseases (Canal-Martín et al., 2019). Here, RIC8A is linked to neurodevelopmental disorder.