Synosia Announces Positive Interim Results For Potential First-in-Class Treatment For Parkinson's Disease

Main Category: Parkinson's Disease
Also Included In: Clinical Trials / Drug Trials
Article Date: 01 Feb 2010 - 7:00 PDT

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Synosia Therapeutics announced interim positive data from a Phase IIa clinical study of an adenosine 2a (A2a) receptor antagonist (SYN115) in Parkinson's disease.

The Phase IIa trial was a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study in 24 Parkinson's patients using doses up to 120mg/day for one week. The effects of SYN-115 as an add-on therapy to a stable dose of levodopa was assessed using a number of techniques, including functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), clinical ratings such as the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale and various cognitive tests.

The data from fMRI using arterial spin labelling showed that SYN-115 produced statistically significant, dose-related changes in blood flow in regions of the brain known to be relevant to Parkinson's. Activity in these regions is known to be modulated by established Parkinson's treatments such as dopamine agonists and levodopa.

Further positive results on multiple clinical endpoints of motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease will be announced in the coming months.

Principal investigator Dr Kevin Black, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, Radiology and Neurobiology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, said: "These encouraging results suggest that SYN-115 is able to cross the blood-brain barrier and have an effect that could be beneficial to patients with Parkinson's."

"The innovative, imaging techniques used have given us a great deal of information to help plan future clinical trials of SYN-115," said Dr Steve Bandak, Synosia's Chief Medical Officer. "We have successfully established that SYN115 is getting into the brain, changing the activity of relevant regions of the brain, and we now have a better understanding of the doses that are likely to be therapeutically useful. Those were our objectives in undertaking the study."

About SYN-115

SYN-115 is a potent and selective third-generation inhibitor of the A2a receptor and is being developed by Synosia as a potential add-on therapy to a stable dose of levodopa, the current gold standard of treatment in Parkinson's, or as a monotherapy.

Rights to SYN-115 were obtained by Synosia from Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) in 2007 for development in selected indications of the central nervous system.

About Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, after Alzheimer's disease. It affects about one per cent of people aged 65-69 years, rising to up to three per cent of people aged 80 years and older.1

About Synosia

Synosia Therapeutics is a privately owned company, which develops and intends to commercialise innovative, first or best-in-class products for unmet medical needs in neurology and psychiatry. Synosia utilises cutting-edge technologies and creative clinical study designs to de-risk its compounds before moving into larger, more extensive Phase II and Phase III programmes.

Synosia has five clinical-stage compounds in development for neurological and psychiatric diseases that have high unmet medical need, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. Synosia is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. For more information visit http://www.synosia.com

References

1. Guttmacher et al. Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease. New England Journal of Medicine (2003); 348; 1356-64

Source
Synosia Therapeutics

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