Anavex Life Sciences Corp., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, has reported that its new study data showed that ANAVEX 2-73 to be effective in counteracting the progression of Alzheimer’s disease under chronic treatment in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s, named Tg2576.

The new data was presented by Tangui Maurice, CNRS Research director at the University of Montpellier and INSERM, at the Society for Neuroscience 2013 Annual Meeting at San Diego.

Ten month-old Tg2576 mice, both female and male, were treated with ANAVEX 2-73, which was administered orally on a daily basis for two months. Results showed that ANAVEX 2-73 significantly alleviated the learning and memory deficits developed over time in the animals, regardless of sex, both in terms of spatial working memory (spontaneous alternation in a Y-maze) and long-term spatial reference memory (place learning in a water maze). The treatment also showed a statistically significant neuroprotective effect against the development of oxidative stress in the mouse brain, as well as significantly increased the expression of functional and synaptic plasticity markers.

ANAVEX 2-73 demonstrated to be effective on functional responses and biochemical markers of the toxicity developed in Tg2576 mice. Interestingly, the compound only marginally decreased soluble amyloid-beta brain contents. Since many therapeutic strategies based on lowering amyloid-beta have failed, it is quite possible that amyloid-beta reduction does not correlate directly with disease improvement.

Tangui Maurice, said, “These observations suggest that ANAVEX 2-73 induces a strong neuroprotective effect that is apparently amyloid-beta independent. The data also confirms the efficacy of the mixed muscarinic cholinergic and sigma-1 receptor agonist in a chronic transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s. The compound may enable effective brain protection during the most aggressive phase of the disease pathology.”

Christopher U Missling, president and chief executive officer of Anavex, said, “Alzheimer’s is a complex disease driven by multiple factors. These findings support the theory that a further “upstream” therapeutic intervention to rescue synaptic dysfunction directly might be more promising than manipulating “downstream” amyloid-beta functionality, given the complex role of amyloid-beta in neuronal physiology. The new study supports ANAVEX 2-73’s therapeutic potential through its moderate mixed muscarinic and sigma-1 agonist features and represents another potential validation for a further path into clinical trials.”

The poster, entitled “Chronic treatment with the tetrahydrofuran derivative ANAVEX 2-73, a mixed muscarinic cholinergic and sigma-1 ligand, alleviates pathology in Tg2576 mice, a transgenic Alzheimer's disease model” was co-authored by Valentine Lahmy, PharmD, and Vanessa Villard, PhD, Amylgen.

Anavex Life Sciences Corp. is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of novel drug candidates to treat Alzheimer’s, CNS diseases and various types of cancer.