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GENERAL STR
HTL-9936
PRE CLINICAL
Selective muscarinic acetylcholine receptor M1 (CHRM1; HM1) agonist
MolecularTargetMuscarinic acetylcholine receptor M1 (CHRM1) (HM1)
Mechanism of ActionMuscarinic acetylcholine receptor M1 agonist
Heptares Therapeutics was founded in 2007 to develop drugs against GPCRs. Its lead candidate,HTL-9936, is a selective muscarinic M1 agonist designed to improve cognitive function in patients with AD and other diseases, which recently entered the clinic for the first time.
Heptares Therapeutics, the leading GPCR structure-guided drug discovery and development company, announces that it has initiated a Phase 1 clinical study of HTL9936, the first fully selective muscarinic M1 receptor agonist to enter clinical development. HTL9936 is an orally available, small molecule drug candidate discovered using the Heptares GPCR structure-based drug design (SBDD) platform. Heptares plans to develop HTL9936 as a novel treatment for improving cognitive function (memory and thinking abilities) in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other diseases associated with dementia and cognitive impairment.
“We are excited to initiate clinical development of HTL9936, a first-in-class agent with the potential to become an important new medicine for improving cognitive function in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other potential indications including schizophrenia and Lewy body dementia,” said Malcolm Weir, CEO of Heptares. “In addition, the initiation of this clinical trial with HTL9936 marks an important milestone for Heptares, as we evolve into a clinical-stage business with a rich portfolio of novel GPCR-targeted agents advancing through Phase 1 and 2a clinical trials in the near-term.”
M1 receptor agonism is a well-validated mechanism of action for treating cognitive impairment and a valuable pharmacological profile that the pharmaceutical industry has endeavored to create for decades. The principal challenge has been to engineer selective compounds that activate the M1 receptor subtype without also activating the M2 or M3 receptors, which are associated with undesirable side effects. All previous compounds have been discontinued due to inadequate selectivity. Using a new structure-guided approach, Heptares scientists determined the x-ray crystal structure of the M1 receptor for the first time and leveraged unique insights into the receptor to identify new chemistries with fully selective M1 agonist profiles.
The Phase 1 study will evaluate the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of HTL9936. In addition, the clinical pharmacodynamics of the drug will be investigated in a series of studies over the next year. This study aims to recruit more than 100 healthy volunteers including elderly people at a single clinical centre in the UK. Initial results are expected in mid-2014
About Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Disorders of Cognitive Impairment
Today there is significant unmet medical need and heavy economic burden across multiple diseases characterised by cognitive impairment and dementia. In Alzheimer’s disease, currently available drugs provide limited and transient effects on cognition. Healthcare costs associated with the epidemic of AD, including nursing home care, continue to grow dramatically and new therapies with better and more durable efficacy are urgently needed. In addition, an estimated 80% of schizophrenics suffer from cognitive impairment and 1.3 million patients in the US suffer from Lewy body dementia. Currently there are no approved therapies for treating cognitive impairment in schizophrenia or for treating Lewy body dementia.
About Heptares Therapeutics
Heptares creates new medicines targeting clinically important, yet historically challenging, GPCRs (G protein-coupled receptors), a superfamily of drug receptors linked to a wide range of human diseases. Leveraging our proprietary structure-based drug design technology platform, we have built an exciting pipeline of novel drug candidates with the potential to transform the treatment of serious diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, ADHD, diabetes, schizophrenia, and migraine. Our pharmaceutical partners include Cubist, MorphoSys, Takeda, AstraZeneca and MedImmune, and we are backed by Clarus Ventures, MVM Life Science Partners, Novartis Venture Fund, the Stanley Family Foundation and Takeda Ventures. To learn more about Heptares, please visit http://www.heptares.com
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WO 2013072705
http://www.google.com/patents/WO2013072705A1?cl=en
Scheme 3 below.
Scheme 3
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WO 2014045031
http://www.google.com/patents/WO2014045031A1?cl=en
Muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs) are members of the G protein-coupled receptor superfamily which mediate the actions of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in both the central and peripheral nervous system. Five mAChR subtypes have been cloned, to M5. The mAChR is predominantly expressed post-synaptically in the cortex, hippocampus, striatum and thalamus; M2 mAChRs are located predominantly in the brainstem and thalamus, though also in the cortex, hippocampus and striatum where they reside on cholinergic synaptic terminals (Langmead et al., 2008 Br J
Pharmacol). However, M2 mAChRs are also expressed peripherally on cardiac tissue (where they mediate the vagal innervation of the heart) and in smooth muscle and exocrine glands. M3 mAChRs are expressed at relatively low level in the CNS but are widely expressed in smooth muscle and glandular tissues such as sweat and salivary glands (Langmead et al, 2008 Br J Pharmacol).
Muscarinic receptors in the central nervous system, especially the mAChR, play a critical role in mediating higher cognitive processing. Diseases associated with cognitive impairments, such as Alzheimer’s disease, are accompanied by loss of cholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain (Whitehouse et al, 1982 Science). In schizophrenia, which is also characterised by cognitive impairments, mAChR density is reduced in the pre-frontal cortex, hippocampus and caudate putamen of
schizophrenic subjects (Dean et al, 2002 Mol Psychiatry). Furthermore, in animal models, blockade or lesion of central cholinergic pathways results in profound cognitive deficits and non-selective mAChR antagonists have been shown to induce psychotomimetic effects in psychiatric patients. Cholinergic replacement therapy has largely been based on the use of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors to prevent the breakdown of endogenous acetylcholine. These compounds have shown efficacy versus symptomatic cognitive decline in the clinic, but give rise to dose-limiting side effects resulting from stimulation of peripheral M2 and M3mAChRs including disturbed gastrointestinal motility, bradycardia, nausea and vomiting
(http ://www. d rugs . com/pro/donepezi 1. htm I ;
http://yvww.drugs.com/pro/rivastigmine.html).
Scheme 1 below.
Scheme 1
Scheme 2 below.
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Scheme 2
REF
March 2012, data were presented at the 243rd ACS meeting in San Diego, CA
April 2013, similar data were presented at the 245th ACS Meeting in New Orleans, LA.
September 2012, preclinical data were presented at the Fourth RSC/SCI GPCRs in Medicinal Chemistry Symposium in Windlesham, UK.
Filed under: Preclinical drugs, Uncategorized Tagged: HEPTARE, HTL-9936 
