Researchers from Merck & Co. Inc. have disclosed the structure and reported preclinical data for MK-8189, a phosphodiesterase 10A (PDE10A) inhibitor.

Trans-synaptic complexes regulate synapse development and maturation. Disorders involving synaptopathies, such as schizophrenia, affect specific regions of the brain.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are non-coding RNAs abundant in the brain, and several of them are functionally involved in ischemic stroke.

The shunt towards, or away from, cognitive decline may happen decades before such decline becomes clinically evident. And known risk factors explain very little of that decline. That is the conclusion reached by researchers from the Ohio State University, who published their results in the Feb. 8, 2023, issue of PLOS ONE.

In their analysis, the team looked at both the absolute level of cognitive function in about 7,000 participants of the U.S. Health and Retirement Study at age 54, and at the decline in cognitive function from age 54 to 85. The study participants that were analyzed were born between 1931 and 1941. The results were reminiscent of the adage that the way to make a silk purse out a sow’s ear is to start with a silk sow.

Spinal-bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA), also called Kennedy disease, is an X-linked genetic disorder in which the loss of motor neurons affects the parts of the nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement.

Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has identified G-protein coupled receptor 84 (GPR84) antagonists reported to be useful for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, fibrosis, neurodegenerative disease and arthritis.

FSD Pharma Inc. has received a no objection letter (NOL) from Health Canada granting regulatory approval to commence a phase I trial of LUCID-21-302 (Lucid-MS), a novel drug candidate for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS).