ALISO VIEJO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Avanir Pharmaceuticals today announced positive top-line results from the company's Phase III clinical trial evaluating the investigational drug Zenvia (dextromethorphan hydrobromide/quinidine sulfate ("DMQ")), an NMDA antagonist and sigma-1 agonist, in diabetic neuropathic pain.
HOW DOES ZENVIA WORK TO TREAT NEUROPATHIC PAIN? What is diabetic neuropathic pain?
Neuropathic pain is a condition basically defined by "as pain initiated or caused by a primary
lesion or dysfunction in the nervous system". That means researchers and doctors really don't know what actually causes neuropathy, but are working on how to treat the symptoms. The pain is described as shooting, electric or radiant. The pain was once described by elderly patients was that of their feet literally feeling like they were on fire and the patients had to be heavily sedated to combat it. I read somewhere in graduate school once that one person literally tried to cut their own foot off because of the pain.
So what about Zenvia? NMDA receptors are found in the brain (called glutamate receptors) that are mainly responsible for regulation of calcium flow in neurons. You may have heard of dextromethorphan as a cough suppressant. Inhibition of NMDA receptors stops calcium signaling, which is thought to alleviate pain.
Quinidine sulfate was originally used as a cardiac rhythmic drug. It's use in this case is stop the action of enzymes that degrade the dextromethorphan, thus raising it's therapeutic window.
Because of the encouraging data, AVNR ended today's trading up over 300% or $3.92 per share to close at $5.40 after hours.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment