SAN DIEGO, June 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Camino Pharma,
LLC, a biotech company focused on finding cures for cancer and
brain disorders, announced today that its co-founder and CSO,
Reto Gadient, Ph.D., has been
awarded a two-year, $920K SBIR grant
by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) at the National
Institutes of Health. The grant will fund a collaborative effort
between Camino Pharma, LLC, University of
California San Diego (UCSD) and Sanford Burnham Prebys
Medical Discovery Institute to validate negative allosteric
modulators (NAMs) of metabotropic glutamate receptor 2 and 3
(mGlu2/3) for the treatment of major depressive disorder
and treatment-resistant depression.
"This exciting collaboration between Camino Pharma, UCSD and
Sanford Burnham Prebys is aimed at
bringing forth novel therapeutic options for patients suffering
from major depression," says Gonul Velicelebi, Ph.D., co-founder
and CEO of the company.
"We are optimistic that our lead compound, SBP-9881, and its
analogs—all discovered at Sanford Burnham Prebys—have the
properties to become safe and effective drugs to help the millions
of people affected by depression. Importantly, SBP-9881 can be
dosed orally and has fast-acting and long-lasting effects in
vivo," adds Gadient.
The grant will enable the multidisciplinary team of scientists
to validate SBP-9881 in two novel rodent models of anhedonia and
avolition designed to translate to clinical efficacy. "These
behavioral models reflect the imbalance(s) in brain circuitries
affected in patients suffering from depression. Activity in these
models will provide us with higher confidence that efficacy can be
obtained in the clinic, which has been notoriously difficult in
depression using traditional models," says Andre Der-Avakian, Ph.D., assistant professor in
the Department of Psychiatry, UCSD.
"A large body of experimental evidence suggests that glutamate
neurotransmission is involved in the pathophysiology of
depression," says Nicholas Cosford,
Ph.D., co-founder of Camino Pharma, LLC, and a professor at Sanford
Burnham Prebys' National Cancer Institute–designated Cancer Center
and Director of Translational Research. "Our compounds increase
glutamate neurotransmission by negatively modulating
mGlu2/3, and therefore represent a mechanism distinct
from other drugs used in the treatment of depression."
About metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGlus)
The mGlu receptors are a family of eight G protein-coupled
glutamate receptors that are widely expressed in the central
nervous system (CNS) and are classified into three groups based on
sequence homology and signaling mechanisms. The group II mGlus
(mGlu2 and mGlu3) are located presynaptically
at glutamatergic synapses, where they play a key role in
maintaining glutamate homeostasis. mGlu2 and
mGlu3 are abundantly expressed in forebrain regions
affected in depression, where they modulate glutamate transmission
and the release of other neurotransmitters involved in reward
processing. mGlu2 and mGlu3 are also
abundantly expressed in brain regions implicated in drug abuse and
addiction, including the cortex, hippocampus, striatum and
amygdala. Thus, negative modulators of presynaptic mGlu2
and mGlu3 represent a new class of drugs to treat
depression, and positive modulators for substance abuse disorders.
Camino Pharma is collaborating with Sanford
Burnham Prebys to pursue both strategies.
About Camino Pharma, LLC (www.caminopharma.com)
Camino Pharma is a San Diego–based start-up focused on
discovering and developing safe and effective, first-in-class drugs
to treat patients suffering from (1) psychiatric disorders that are
poorly addressed by current medications, including substance abuse
and major depression, and (2) the most aggressive forms of cancer
with currently limited treatment options. We target signaling
proteins based on emerging biological concepts and discover novel
mechanisms for modulating these targets with small molecule drugs.
Our leadership team has proven expertise in the relevant target
biology as well as extensive experience in drug discovery and
development. Our innovative technology platform allows for
exploiting inadequately served targets that require a highly
adaptive and specialized approach to drug discovery. We intend to
find novel cures using our deep understanding in target biology
combined with well-tailored, cutting-edge discovery
technologies.
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SOURCE Camino Pharma, LLC