2A Biosciences Inc. has described phenethylamines acting as 5-HT2A receptor agonists reported to be useful for the treatment of psychiatric, neurodegenerative, neurodevelopmental, inflammatory and eye disorders.
Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC has prepared and tested triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2) agonists reported to be useful for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and neurodegeneration.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a degenerative and inflammatory condition of the central nervous system (CNS) that impacts more than 2.5 million individuals globally. Interleukin-33 (IL-33) is an immunoregulatory cytokine that has shown a mild inhibitory effect on experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), which serves as a mouse model for MS. However, its clinical application is limited by unfavorable pharmacokinetics and associated toxicity.
A recent study published in the journal International Immunopharmacology presents compelling preclinical evidence that NIMA-associated kinase 7 (NEK7), a key regulator of inflammation, may play a pivotal role in the pathology of depression.
The switch will be flicked today to make the world’s largest dementia-related proteomics dataset freely available to researchers, at the same time as members of the consortium which compiled it publish the proteomics signatures of major neurodegenerative diseases that they uncovered in a first trawl of the data.
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s dual phase III victories in narcolepsy type 1 (NT1) with oral orexin receptor 2 (OX2R)-selective agonist oveporexton (also known as TAK-861) had Wall Street mulling what the outcome might mean for others trying the mechanism of action, and questions linger about side effects on eyesight.
Recent patents from Vigil Neuroscience Inc. describe heterocyclic compounds acting as triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2) agonists.
A team of researchers from the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, further investigated the link between hippocampal G protein-activated inward rectifier potassium channel (GIRK) and Alzheimer’s disease pathology.
“Loss of synapses and dysfunctional synapses in a region-specific way is important in Alzheimer’s. It’s actually the strongest correlate of cognitive decline, far more so than plaques and tangles, which are the pathological hallmarks,” Soyon Hong told the audience at the XVII Meeting on Glial Cells in Health and Disease, which was held in Marseille last week.
At first blush, the brain’s extracellular matrix (ECM) seems like the opposite of synaptic plasticity. Plasticity is the ability to change; the ECM is stable, to the point that it is often described as a scaffold – something to lend stability. “ECM proteins have some of the longest lifetimes of any protein in the brain,” Anna Molofsky told her audience at the XVII Meeting on Glial Cells in Health and Disease, which is being held in Marseille this week.