New project to develop a drug to fight cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia

 The goal of «Spark» is to carry out the first preclinical stage of the development of a first-in-class drug that will prevent, stop and reverse the progression of cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia and other mental disorders, and to be able to start first-in-humans trials by 2016

The project, which has just won a 500,000 euro endorsement from the Ministry of Economy and Finance through the "Retos-Colaboración" (Challenges-Collaboration) subprogram- will be developed by a consortium led by the biotech Iproteos -located at the Parc Cientific de Barcelona- and comprised by the company Ascil-Biopharm, IRB Barcelona, the Centre for Genomic Regulation and the University of the Basque Country

Currently there is no drug targettingthe cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia, the third most disabling disease even above paraplegia and blindness- according to the WHO and that affects about 24 million people worldwide. It is also the fifth disease with a higher annual cost to society, with more than 35,000 million euros cost only in the Europe Union

A public-private consortium led by the biotech Iproteos -based at Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB)-, and comprised by the biopharmaceutical company Ascil-Biopharma, the Institute for Biomedical Research (IRB Barcelona), the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) has launched a project to advance the development of a new neuroprotective drug for the treatment of the cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia and other mental disorders. The project, called “Spark”, has just received a 500,000 euro grant from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, through the 2014 “Retos-Colaboración” (Challenges-Collaboration) subprogram call as part of the National Programme for Research Aimed at the Challenges of Society’ (File. RTC-2014-1645-1).

The drug candidate is IPR019, that belongs to a family of compounds of so-called ‘third generation’, has been developed and patented by Iproteos. The therapeutic activity of the drug is based on blocking a protein located in the brain that is related to the cognitive impairment. “Our drug acts through a yet unexplored novel mechanism of action in the treatment of schizophrenia, and it is therefore, a first-in-class drug”, explains scientist Teresa Tarragó, CEO of Iproteos and researcher at IRB Barcelona.

IPR019 is a peptide derivative (small protein) able to cross the blood-brain barrier- a protective wall of the brain, impassable for most of the drugs available in the market- which has already shown its efficacy as a cognitive enhancer in in vivo tests. Scientists have achieved a significant improvement in learning and memory capabilities, which make it a revolutionary treatment for diseases of the central nervous system in which cognitive abilities are severely diminished.

4 Likes

I’m just wondering if studies have been done to sort out cognitive impairment + negative symptoms from medicine side effects. It’s probably some of both, but it would be good to know which is which.

1 Like