Week of December 23 - December 30, 2007
GENEVA - Anavex Life Sciences Corp. announced promising developments with ANAVEX 1-41, the company's lead drug undergoing testing to treat Alzheimer's disease. The recent successful tests were pre-clinical animal studies. ANAVEX 1-41 prevented oxidative stress, which damages and destroys cells and is believed to be a primary cause of Alzheimer's disease. ANAVEX 1-41 also prevented the expression of caspase-3, an enzyme that plays a key role in programmed cell death and in the loss of cells in the hippocampus, the part of the brain that regulates learning, emotion and memory.
The results indicate a novel mechanism of action, which offers a new strategy in fighting Alzheimer's. Published results were presented at the Neuroscience 2007 conference in San Diego, California. The testing is being conducted in cooperation with Universite Montpellier in France.
"The fact that we have evidence of neuroprotective action, which is essentially protection to any part of the body's nervous system, through the prevention of oxidative stress is a major milestone in the development of ANAVEX 1-41," said Dr. Vamvakides, Chief Scientific Officer of ANAVEX. "With this novel mechanism of action we anticipate that ANAVEX 1-41 may slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease and considerably improve the quality of life of those impacted by the disease as well as their caregivers."
The pre-clinical studies tested ANAVEX 1-41's ability to protect neurons, the nerve cells that make up the brain, from degeneration or death. Testing was conducted in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. The brains of mice were injected with amyloid beta peptide, the key ingredient in Alzheimer's brain plaques, which is known to induce physical changes, oxidative stress and learning deficits within seven days.
When ANAVEX 1-41 was administered to mice, it prevented damage to nerve cell membranes normally caused by amyloid beta. ANAVEX 1-41 also reduced the loss of critical brain cells in the hippocampus by blocking the amyloid-beta-induced expression of the caspase-3 enzyme. As mentioned above, this disrupts caspase-3's part in "programmed cell death."
ANAVEX 1-41 has been previously shown to reverse learning deficits in mice. (The learning deficits were induced by the drugs scopolamine and dizocilpine, or through the administration of amyloid beta peptide.) In addition to these findings, the ANAVEX scientific team recently reported there is additional neuroprotective potential with "sigma-1 receptor drugs" (see below) like these because they help calcium mobilization and signal transduction, which make healthy brain cells perform better.
"We are excited by the data that was presented at the Neuroscience 2007 conference regarding the neuroprotective and anti-amnesic properties of ANAVEX 1-41 for Alzheimer's disease," said Dr. Kontzalis, Chief Executive Officer for ANAVEX. "We are committed to further exploring the disease-modifying properties of ANAVEX 1-41 and to meeting our ultimate goal of developing novel therapies to prevent the onset of or slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease."
ANAVEX 1-41 pre-clinical studies will be completed in the coming weeks. Once pre-clinical testing is complete, ANAVEX will commence with IND filing so that human trials of ANAVEX 1-41 can begin.
About Alzheimer's Medications
Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia and is characterized by the progressive degeneration of cognition as a result of the destruction of nerve cells in the brain. Dementia affects an estimated 37 million people worldwide and approximately 50% of these cases are caused by Alzheimer's disease.
Medications currently available to treat Alzheimer's include 2 main categories:
acetylcholinesterase inhibitors
N-methyl-D aspartate receptor antagonists.
Both types of medications treat symptoms of people with Alzheimer's. They do not stop the onset and progression of Alzheimer's.
Research and discoveries such as those in this article meet very real and unmet medical requirements for drug therapies to treat Alzheimer's disease. They have the potential to act on the underlying disease pathology and modify disease onset and progression.
About Sigma-1 Receptors
Sigma receptors are a unique family of proteins, present mainly in the Central Nervous System (the brain and spinal chord) but also in various peripheral tissues. The receptors are classified in two subtypes: the sigma-1 and sigma-2. These subtypes are distinguishable pharmacologically, functionally and by molecular size. Sigma-1 receptors have been cloned and shown to be distinct from any known receptor class.
In the Central Nervous System, they are involved in the modulation of neurotransmitter receptor function, neurotransmitter release and response, as well as memory and learning processes, demonstrating potential neuroprotective and anti-amnesic properties. The modulatory action and the implication of numerous cellular and biochemical signaling pathways suggest possible sigma receptor involvement in many neuronal processes.
More Information:
Anavex Life Sciences Corp. is an emerging biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of novel drug targets for the treatment of cancer and neurological diseases.
Anavex 1-41 Test Results
Sources:
Anavex Life Sciences Corp.
Universite Montpellier, France
Byline:
By Peter Berger, Editor
Reviewed by Dr. B. Ancselovicz, Geriatrician
Copyright:
© 2007 Alzheimer's Weekly LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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