http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/jpet/371/1/1.full.pdf … This is big news; an antipsychotic that's NOT a D2 agonist.
-
Show this thread
-
Antipsychotic drugs do block hallucinations, but they also have scary side effects: they cause motor disorders, cognitive impairment, and the newer ones cause extreme weight gain.https://srconstantin.wordpress.com/2017/05/25/antipsychotics-might-cause-cognitive-impairment/comment-page-1/#comment-21557 …
1 reply 0 retweets 5 likesShow this thread -
Blocking D2 causes motor disorders and cognitive impairment; blocking 5HT2A causes sedation and weight gain. This new drug does neither.
1 reply 0 retweets 7 likesShow this thread -
https://academic.oup.com/schizophreniabulletin/article/45/Supplement_2/S199/5434347 … Other antipsychotics don't do anything for the negative symptoms of schizophrenia (the cognitive impairment and loss of motivation.) This one does: 0.48 effect size on negative symptoms in an RCT!
1 reply 0 retweets 3 likesShow this thread -
What's cool is that it was discovered phenotypically; researchers put mice in "SmartCube" boxes where their behavior was monitored on video through a variety of tests. This allows drugs to be clustered (as anxiolytics, stimulants, etc) based on their effects on behavior.
2 replies 0 retweets 7 likesShow this thread -
It's a high-tech version of what psychopharmacology used to be like in the 1950's -- give some chemicals to mice and see if they act funny. This allows the discovery of totally new mechanisms of action.
1 reply 0 retweets 2 likesShow this thread -
I learned about this from Emer Leahy, the founder of Psychogenics, the biotech company that built the SmartCube and pioneered this behavioral-phenotype approach to CNS drug discovery. It sounded crazy 20 years ago, but now the results are coming in and they're astonishing.
1 reply 0 retweets 3 likesShow this thread
In vivo phenotypic screening: it's how you do exploratory science when computing power is abundant! And it works! (Hint: we're doing it at Daphnia Labs too.)
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.