Issn Print: 1533-7006

Publication Date: 2003/05/01


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NEUROTRANSMITTER STABILIZERS COULD ELIMINATE SIDE EFFECTS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA DRUGS

Edward Susman

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Orlando, FL — The newest goal in treating diseases attributed to abnormal levels of brain dopamine is to create drugs that stabilize these levels. In fact, researchers reported at the Society for Neuroscience (SFN) Annual Meeting in late fall that several new drugs may effectively quell symptoms of schizophrenia and Parkinson disease (PD) without causing negative side effects.
“We are developing a novel drug with an interesting mode of action,” Nobel laureate Arvid Carlsson, MD, PhD, of the University of Goteborg, Sweden, told attendees at a press briefing describing his work. “The compound, ACR16, acts on dopamine and may treat both diseases without causing the movement disorders associated with other antipsychotic or Parkinson drugs.”
Dr. Carlsson, the founder of Carlsson Research, a private company that is developing the compound in Sweden, said:“We think that ACR16 is a better target of dopamine than current drugs because it only partially blocks the dopamine receptors and can stabilize the system.”
“These are partial blockers,” Herbert Y. Meltzer, MD, Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology/Neuroscience at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, explained at the SFN briefing. “The new compounds normalize the activity of either dopamine or serotonin and bring it up or down to an intermediate level. They don't fully block these receptors or fully stimulate them.
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