New article on antidepressive effects with NeuroRestore ACD856

AlzeCure Pharma AB (publ) (FN STO: ALZCUR) a pharmaceutical company that develops a broad portfolio of small molecule candidate drugs for diseases affecting the central nervous system, with projects in both Alzheimer’s disease and pain, today announced that a new scientific article on preclinical results supporting antidepressive effects with NeuroRestore ACD856 has been published.

The article, titled "Antidepressant effects of novel positive allosteric modulators of Trk-receptor mediated signaling – a potential therapeutic concept?", was published in the journal Psychopharmacology and corresponding author is Johan Sandin, Chief Scientific Officer at AlzeCure Pharma. Co-authors are Nather Madjid, Veronica Lidell, Gunnar Nordvall, Maria Lindskog, Sven Ove Ögren and Pontus Forsell.

The article focuses on new data showing that ACD856, the lead and clinical drug candidate in the NeuroRestore platform, exhibits antidepressant effects in various preclinical models. These findings are also supported by data showing that ACD856 affects levels of relevant neurotransmitters in the brain. Furthermore, it was shown that other antidepressants also seem to mediate their effects via the same target mechanism as ACD856 and that these can be combined for an even better effect.

"BDNF/TrkB has since long been a biological mechanism believed to play an important role in depression, and our new data, as well as these new publications, suggest that this mechanism is central to the therapeutic effects of antidepressants. Also, the long-term effects on plasticity that appear to be central to these new classes of antidepressants are something associated with BDNF/TrkB signaling and something that the company previously reported that ACD856 exhibits", said Johan Sandin, Chief Scientific Officer at AlzeCure Pharma.

“These new positive data are supported by new publications in Cell*and Nature Neuroscience**, which also are commented on in Science***, where they shown that different classes of antidepressant substances seem to mediate their effect via the same mechanism as ACD856 (BDNF/TrkB). Depression is an area of great medical need. That ACD856 exhibits potent antidepressant effects in these preclinical models broadens and strengthens the commercial possibilities of the NeuroRestore project that we are now preparing for Phase II", said Martin Jönsson, VD at AlzeCure Pharma.

The article is available via the following link:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-023-06410-x 

* Casarotto PC et al. Cell. (2021) Mar 4;184(5):1299-1313; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33606976/
** Moliner, R et al Nature Neuroscience (2023) 26, 1032–1041: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-023-01316-5
*** https://www.science.org/content/article/psychedelic-inspired-drugs-could-relieve-depression-without-causing-hallucinations