Recent Engrail Therapeutics Inc. patents describe new deuterated nemonapride analogues potentially useful for the treatment of depression and schizophrenia.
Researchers from Columbia University Irving Medical Center published data from a study that assessed GiGA1, a selective G protein-gated inwardly rectifying potassium channel (GIRK) activator, in physiologically and clinically relevant ex vivo mouse models of tumor-associated and provoked seizures.
Harness Therapeutics Ltd. has raised fresh financing to further develop its technology for upregulating the translation of mRNA into proteins, and in particular to take on a previously undruggable target in Huntington’s disease.
Bioage Labs Inc. has nominated BGE-102 as a development candidate. The orally available, small-molecule NLRP3 inhibitor has high potency and high brain penetration.
Atalanta Therapeutics Inc. has completed a $97 million series B financing to support its investigational RNA interference (RNAi) therapies for KCNT1-related epilepsy and Huntington’s disease toward IND filings this year and through clinical proof of concept.
The way the brain ages is not the same in women and men. A study in mice has observed differences in the expression of the maternal and paternal X chromosomes that could explain variation in brain aging between the sexes and a faster deterioration in some women. Another study has discovered different survival strategies in the microglial cells of females and males. Both studies highlight sex differences that could have implications for several age-related neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.
Harness Therapeutics Ltd. has raised fresh financing to further develop its technology for upregulating the translation of mRNA into proteins, and in particular to take on a previously undruggable target in Huntington’s disease.
Lantheus Holdings Inc. is making waves in M&A with its second big deal of the month – and year – the acquisition of Evergreen Theragnostics Inc. for $250 million in cash up front and up to an additional $752.5 million in contingent payments. The transaction follows announcement of a definitive agreement to acquire Life Molecular Imaging Ltd., a subsidiary of Life Healthcare Group Holdings Ltd., on Jan. 13 for $350 million in cash at closing and a further $400 million in milestone payments.
Work at Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry has led to the identification of new receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 1 (RIPK1; RIP-1) inhibitors. They are described as potentially useful for the treatment of ischemia-reperfusion injury, Parkinson’s disease, autoimmune diseases, glaucoma, traumatic brain injury, inflammatory disorders, bacterial infections and lysosomal storage diseases, among others.
Lifearc has announced a collaboration with Neuropeutics Inc. to develop a new small molecule for the treatment of motor neuron disease (MND), or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Neuropeutics and Lifearc intend to develop a lead candidate therapeutic to prevent and reverse TDP-43 protein aggregation in MND/ALS.