Recent Patents on CNS Drug Discovery (Discontinued) - Volume 10, Issue 1, 2015

Tinnitus, a disorder with disruptive sound perception in the head without an external source, affects around 15 % of the worldwide adult population. Since there is no approved drug for the treatment for this symptom, novel strategies need to be developed to provide relief for the patient. A patent from the small French start-up company Sensorion suggests the use of histamine H4 receptor (H4R) inhibitors as potential treat Read More

Exosomes are small extracellular vesicles (30-120 nm) of endosomal origin, which are gaining the attention of the scientific community. Originally considered only a waste disposal system, they are now emerging as another class of signal mediators. Exosomes are secreted by any cell type and retrieved in every body fluid, such as blood, urine, saliva and amniotic liquid. Remarkably, their biochemical content includes not only lipi Read More

Pleiotrophin (PTN) and Midkine (MK) are neurotrophines with documented protective actions in experimental models of neurodegenerative diseases and beneficial effects on toxicity and addictive behaviours related to drug abuse. Concerning the latter, both PTN and MK prevent the neurotoxic effects of amphetamine on nigrostriatal pathways and endogenous PTN also limits amphetamine reward. Moreover, endogenous PTN ov Read More

Pharmaceutical patenting involves writing claims based on both discoveries already made, and on prophesy of future developments in an ongoing project. This is necessitated by the very different timelines involved in the drug discovery and product development process on the one hand, and successful patenting on the other. If patents are sought too early there is a risk that patent examiners will disallow claims because of lac Read More

Acute Ischemic stroke (IS) remains a leading cause of mortality and long-term disability. Owing to the time-constraints, only a fraction of acute IS patients receive the established and approved thrombolytic therapy and a sizeable proportion of acute IS stroke survivors remain permanently disabled. Rapid advances in various recanalization strategies have aimed at improving functional outcome and reducing mortality. Existi Read More

Osteoporotic hip fracture needs a specific approach and treatment, since elderly patients are at high risk for adverse outcomes after surgery. In particular, delirium often occurs in the peri-operative period, and it is associated with death, hospital-acquired complications, persistent cognitive impairments, poor functional recovery after surgery and increased healthcare costs. The pre-operative assessment of the risk factors fo Read More