Vedana Therapeutics has emerged from stealth with $46 million in series A financing. The company is developing next-generation, preventive therapies for migraine by leveraging pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) biology, and highly selective combinatorial targeting of clinically validated pathways.

Acumen Pharmaceuticals Inc. has nominated ACU-301 and ACU-401 as development candidates in its Enhanced Brain Delivery (EBD) program as treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), developmental epileptic encephalopathies and other neurodevelopmental disorders are driven by the disruption of genes regulating neuronal proliferation, differentiation and synaptic maturation. Researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine generated Csnk2b haploinsufficient (Csnk2b+/-) mice mimicking the most relevant disease features to investigate the effects of reduced gene dosage.

JW Pharmaceutical Corp. has presented data on DDC-02 across animal models of several rare neurodevelopmental disorders, including Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, fragile X syndrome and Rett syndrome. Across these models, DDC-02 consistently restored deficits in cognitive and behavioral function.

Scenic Biotech BV has joined The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) LRRK2 Investigative Therapeutics Exchange (LITE) program to explore the therapeutic potential of its PLA2G15 inhibitor program in Parkinson’s disease, including in patients carrying LRRK2 mutations.

Liraglutide, a glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist used in diabetes and obesity, could alleviate depression through a pathway that does not depend on the GLP-1 receptor but instead on the gut microbiota, since the treatment increases the presence of the bacterium Lactobacillus delbrueckii. This symbiotic microorganism produces a lipid that modulates neuronal activity, normalizing the hyperactivation of brain regions in mice involved in emotional processing, which ultimately reduces depressive behaviors.

Harness Therapeutics Ltd. has been awarded a grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) to advance its Parkinson’s disease program targeting glucocerebrosidase (GCase) and lysosomal integral membrane protein-2 (LIMP2) in GBA1-Parkinson’s disease.