Kotobuki Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and Astellas Pharma Inc. have described NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of neurodegeneration and inflammatory disorders.
Researchers from Cerevel Therapeutics LLC presented data from a study that aimed to evaluate preclinical antipsychotic properties of M4 agonism while minimizing off-target side effects using novel muscarinic acetylcholine M4 receptor full and partial agonists, CV-0000042 (CVL-042) and CV-0000071, respectively.
As Wall Street waits to find out later this year whether Stoke Therapeutics Inc.’s positive results with a low, single dose of STK-001 for Dravet syndrome pans out in more extensive research, a number of players large and small are investigating candidates for the rare but dismal form of epilepsy.
Social scientists are well aware of the consequences of what’s called assortative mating, that is, the fact that marriages tend to occur between people who are similar in things such as interests, social status, education and wealth. Biologists, on the other hand, have tended to ignore it. “When studying the genetic underpinnings of correlated traits, “for mathematical convenience, we’ve assumed basically for forever that mating is random,” Richard Border told BioWorld. “Which it isn’t.”
Stimulating the brain via implanted electrodes is used to treat both movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, and some psychiatric conditions such as obsessive compulsive disorder. But researchers are also working on ways to make such implanted electrodes listen instead of talk – and translate neuronal signals for people that have lost the ability speak, or the ability to move.
Simcere Pharmaceutical Group Ltd. has inked a licensing agreement picking rights to develop Idorsia Ltd.’s insomnia treatment in greater China, in exchange for a $30 million up-front payment.
Fundamental Pharma GmbH has raised €10 million (US$10.3 million) in a seed round to develop a new class of glutamate inhibitors, after uncovering a route to maintaining the protective effects of the neurotransmitter in the synapses while preventing neurotoxicity when it is released elsewhere.