Apr 25 2011
Curemark, LLC, a drug research and development company focused on the treatment of neurological diseases, announced today that its compound CM-182 demonstrated positive results for schizophrenia in the transgenic chakragati (ckr) model of psychosis. The mouse model screening was performed by the Contract Research Organization, Cerca Insights.
The chakragati mouse, considered a model for screening antipsychotic compounds, exhibits abnormal circling behavior and hyperactivity in response to environmental stress cues and also anti-social behaviors. When administered Curemark's CM-182, the mice demonstrated dose-related decreases in the hyperactive behaviors. In the landmark paper published in Neuroscience in 2010 (Dawe, et al.), it was demonstrated that the ckr mouse was predictive of antipsychotic efficacy based on decreased hyperactivity.
"Our findings in the ckr mouse model are illustrative of improvement in the positive class of schizophrenic symptoms," says Dr. Matthew Heil, Executive Vice President of Drug Development and Research. "Based on these findings, we are further investigating CM-182's potential to affect the negative class symptoms associated with schizophrenia."
"We are pleased that we received encouraging results," states Dr. Joan Fallon, CEO of Curemark. "Our results demonstrate that our novel compound indeed shows promise for schizophrenia and/or hyperactivity. We intend to develop CM-182 and to initiate an Investigative New Drug application in the near future."
Curemark recently announced that the company has completed enrollment of Phase III clinical trials for CM-AT, its autism treatment.
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