VCNDD Co-Director Craig W. Lindsley, PhD, director of Medicinal Chemistry and the William K. Warren, Jr. Chair in Medicine, said phase I testing will assess drug safety and tolerability in young healthy volunteers, a process that could take a year. If successful, the phase II and III studies would include patients with either Alzheimer’s disease or schizophrenia and could take three-five years to complete.
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tt not that novel, just seeks to reduce dopamine through alternate pathway. If we could reduce negative symptoms, i’m sure ppl with sz will live longer by being more active and not coping through food. Ahhhhhhhhh
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Well, yes and no. It’s not a method of action that has been tried before, so that is novel. Also, it seeks to reduce dopamine only in certain areas of the brain, which is also new.
Striatum vs whole brain including cerebral cortex.
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Some more info:
"An estimated 3 million Americans have schizophrenia, which is associated with excessive amounts of the neurotransmitter dopamine in a part of the forebrain called the striatum.
Current medications reduce hallucinations and delusions, the hallmark of schizophrenia, by blocking dopamine receptors. But because they also block dopamine receptors in the cerebral cortex, they can worsen cognitive difficulties."
“The Vanderbilt study defines a new role for CB2 — modulating dopamine signaling in the striatum, Conn said. This provides a mechanism by which the M4 PAM can relieve psychotic symptoms without causing adverse cognitive effects in other parts of the brain, he said.”
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Does it help in allevating negative symptoms…!!!
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I don’t think we’ll know that til they use it on people, but if it only reduces dopamine in the area in the brain where there is too much, instead of the whole brain, it might.
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Do you think it might be an cure?
oh man that is so true
i coping trough food
i am a week on NAC now for negative symptoms. sometimes it works weird maybe not long enough on it
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good question my friend 
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No, it’s not a cure. Even if it works great (which I hope it will, but we don’t know) like any other med today it will stop working if you stop taking it.
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I mean do you think this med will lead to function like normal people
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Can’t say, as it’s never been tried in people, but maybe for some. I mean, you can find some people here who have pretty ordinary lives on Abilify or risperdone or even haldol.
Phase 1 will be about basic safety, that should go pretty quickly. They should also be able to test the receptor occupancy. Then phase 2 will be the first chance to see if it works in people as it does in mice and laboratory models. The lead researcher seems committed to moving it forward pretty quickly.
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I wonder how you can volunteer for the study? I don’t live in tn though. I hope this drug gets rid of emotional flatness and anedonia.
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Wait till after phase 1 (basic safety) for which they will want healthy people without sz anyway. I’ll see if they list any contact info.
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This is the lab, they have contact info. http://connlab.com/
I don’t know if they will be listing their trial on clinicaltrials.gov (seems likely) but you could probably email them and ask them to let you know. Larger phase 2 and 3 trials usually have multiple trial locations.