White H Steve, Scholl Erika A, Klein Brian D, Flynn Sean P, Pruess Timothy H, Green Brad R, Zhang Liuyin, Bulaj Grzegorz
Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108, USA.
Neurotherapeutics. 2009 Apr;6(2):372-80. doi: 10.1016/j.nurt.2009.01.001.
The endogenous neuropeptide galanin and its associated receptors galanin receptor 1 and galanin receptor 2 are highly localized in brain limbic structures and play an important role in the control of seizures in animal epilepsy models. As such, galanin receptors provide an attractive target for the development of novel anticonvulsant drugs. Our efforts to engineer galanin analogs that can penetrate the blood-brain-barrier and suppress seizures, yielded NAX 5055 (Gal-B2), a systemically-active analog that maintains low nanomolar affinity for galanin receptors and displays a potent anticonvulsant activity. In this report, we show that NAX 5055 is active in three models of epilepsy: 1) the Frings audiogenic seizure-susceptible mouse, 2) the mouse corneal kindling model of partial epilepsy, and 3) the 6 Hz model of pharmacoresistant epilepsy. NAX 5055 was not active in the traditional maximal electroshock and subcutaneous pentylenetetrazol seizure models. Unlike most antiepileptic drugs, NAX 5055 showed high potency in the 6 Hz model of epilepsy across all three different stimulation currents; i.e., 22, 32 and 44 mA, suggesting a potential use in the treatment of pharmacoresistant epilepsy. Furthermore, NAX 5055 was found to be biologically active after intravenous, intraperitoneal, and subcutaneous administration, and efficacy was associated with a linear pharmacokinetic profile. The results of the present investigation suggest that NAX 5055 is a first-in-class neurotherapeutic for the treatment of epilepsy in patients refractory to currently approved antiepileptic drugs.
内源性神经肽甘丙肽及其相关受体甘丙肽受体1和甘丙肽受体2高度定位于脑边缘结构,在动物癫痫模型的癫痫控制中发挥重要作用。因此,甘丙肽受体为新型抗惊厥药物的开发提供了一个有吸引力的靶点。我们致力于设计能够穿透血脑屏障并抑制癫痫发作的甘丙肽类似物,得到了NAX 5055(Gal-B2),这是一种具有全身活性的类似物,对甘丙肽受体保持低纳摩尔亲和力,并表现出强大的抗惊厥活性。在本报告中,我们表明NAX 5055在三种癫痫模型中具有活性:1)弗林斯听源性癫痫易感小鼠,2)部分癫痫的小鼠角膜点燃模型,3)药物难治性癫痫的6 Hz模型。NAX 5055在传统的最大电休克和皮下注射戊四氮癫痫模型中无活性。与大多数抗癫痫药物不同,NAX 5055在6 Hz癫痫模型中,在所有三种不同的刺激电流(即22、32和44 mA)下均表现出高效力,这表明它在治疗药物难治性癫痫方面具有潜在用途。此外,发现NAX 5055在静脉内、腹腔内和皮下给药后具有生物活性,其疗效与线性药代动力学特征相关。本研究结果表明,NAX 5055是用于治疗对目前批准的抗癫痫药物难治的癫痫患者的一流神经治疗药物。