SRC Inhibition as a Potential Target for Parkinson's Disease Psychosis

Summary

Parkinson's disease is often characterised by movement symptoms such as rigidity and bradykinesia, however, there are a number of non-motor symptoms that can have a significant impact on quality of life. One of the most common non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease is visual hallucinations (where someone sees things that don't exist outside their mind). . Recent findings led to the approval of a drug called Pimavanserin as a treatment for PD psychosis in the USA. Based on other recent studies, we believe that Saracatinib, a drug that interacts within the same system as Pimavanserin, is a potential treatment for PD psychosis. Saracatinib has shown to reduce the intensity of the psychedelic effect induced by psilocybin (a naturally occurring psychedelic found in psilocybe mushrooms) and attenuate social cognition and brain changes in healthy volunteers. The aim of this study is to test the effects of 14 days dosing of saracatinib or placebo on 30 volunteers with PD psychosis. We aim to to use neuroimaging combined with psychopharmacology to provide evidence that a putative new treatment approach can modulate abnormal visual cortex activation in patients with PD psychosis. If positive, this proof of mechanism study would provide a strong platform to pursue symptom modification studies with Saracatinib.

Timeline

Start

2019-04-11

Primary completion

2021-09-01

Completion

2021-09-01

Publications

• Background Nygaard HB, Wagner AF, Bowen GS, Good SP, MacAvoy MG, Strittmatter KA, Kaufman AC, Rosenberg BJ, Sekine-Konno T, Varma P, Chen K, Koleske AJ, Reiman EM, Strittmatter SM, van Dyck CH. A phase Ib multiple ascending dose study of the safety, tolerability, and central nervous system availability of AZD0530 (saracatinib) in Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimers Res Ther. 2015 Apr 14;7(1):35. doi: 10.1186/s13195-015-0119-0. eCollection 2015.
• Background Chang A, Fox SH. Psychosis in Parkinson's Disease: Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, and Management. Drugs. 2016 Jul;76(11):1093-118. doi: 10.1007/s40265-016-0600-5.
• Background Ffytche DH, Creese B, Politis M, Chaudhuri KR, Weintraub D, Ballard C, Aarsland D. The psychosis spectrum in Parkinson disease. Nat Rev Neurol. 2017 Feb;13(2):81-95. doi: 10.1038/nrneurol.2016.200. Epub 2017 Jan 20.
• Background Byock I. Taking Psychedelics Seriously. J Palliat Med. 2018 Apr;21(4):417-421. doi: 10.1089/jpm.2017.0684. Epub 2018 Jan 22.
• Background Carter OL, Pettigrew JD, Burr DC, Alais D, Hasler F, Vollenweider FX. Psilocybin impairs high-level but not low-level motion perception. Neuroreport. 2004 Aug 26;15(12):1947-51. doi: 10.1097/00001756-200408260-00023.
• Background Meppelink AM, de Jong BM, Renken R, Leenders KL, Cornelissen FW, van Laar T. Impaired visual processing preceding image recognition in Parkinson's disease patients with visual hallucinations. Brain. 2009 Nov;132(Pt 11):2980-93. doi: 10.1093/brain/awp223. Epub 2009 Sep 15.

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Indications