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Historic $5m investment to establish psychedelics institute 

UC Davis has announced the establishment of the Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics.

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Historic $5m investment to establish psychedelics institute 
Photo by Diego PH on Unsplash

The University of California, Davis has launched the Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics to advance basic knowledge about the mechanisms of psychedelics.

The Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics will work to translate this knowledge into safe and effective treatments for diseases such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), addiction, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, among others. 

Bringing together scientists across a range of disciplines, the Institute will partner with the pharmaceutical industry to ensure that key discoveries lead to new medicines for patients.

See also  Ohio State launches new academic centre for psychedelic research

Associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at UC Davis, David E. Olson, will be the founding director and John A. Gray, associate professor in the Department of Neurology, will serve as associate director. 

In 2018, Olson and Gray published an influential study in Cell Reports demonstrating that psychedelics promote neuroplasticity — the growth of new neurons and formation of neural connections.

See also  Australia reschedules psilocybin and MDMA

Olson commented: “Psychedelics have a unique ability to produce long-lasting changes in the brain that are relevant to treating numerous conditions.

“If we can harness those beneficial properties while engineering molecules that are safer and more scalable, we can help a lot of people.”

Gray added: “Neuronal atrophy is a key factor underlying many diseases, and the ability of psychedelics to promote the growth of neurons and new connections in the brain could have broad therapeutic implications.”

A historic investment

The UC Davis institute will be funded in part by a contribution of approximately USD$5 million from the deans of the College of Letters and Science and the School of Medicine, the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Provost’s office. 

The University highlights that, while other psychedelic science centres have been formed across the country with gifts from philanthropists, the UC Davis institute is notable for also being supported by substantial university funds.

Dean of the College of Letters and Science, overseeing the new institute, Estella Atekwana, commented: “We wanted to put our money where our mouth is and demonstrate our commitment to this space.

“UC Davis has been leading the development of new medicines based on psychedelic research, and together with philanthropists, granting agencies and industrial partners, I’m confident that we can produce major benefits for society.”

Philanthropic donations as well as grants and sponsored research agreements from the federal government, private foundations and industry partners will also support the mission of the institute.

Leveraging strengths in chemistry, neuroscience and medicine

The institute will leverage the expertise in the neuroscience community at UC Davis, which includes nearly 300 faculty members in centres, institutes and departments across the Davis and Sacramento campuses. Researchers will be able to work on every aspect of psychedelic science, from molecules and cells through to human clinical trials.

Susan Murin, dean of the School of Medicine who partnered with Atekwana to support the new institute, commented: “Combining the considerable expertise of UC Davis’ pioneering basic research teams, world-class neuroscientists and our nationally recognised medical centre is a formula for success that we trust will result in groundbreaking discoveries that will help patients regionally and worldwide.”

The Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics was specifically designed to facilitate collaborations across campus, such as that between Olson and Lin Tian, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine. In 2021, their publication in Cell was voted the #2 biomedical research discovery of the year by STAT Madness.

A unique feature of the UC Davis institute will be its focus on chemistry and the development of novel neurotherapeutics.

“Psychedelics have a lot of therapeutic potential, but we can do better,” said Olson. 

Bridging the Valley of Death between academia and industry

The University emphasises that major challenges exist in translating academic discoveries and promising lead compounds into drug candidates for clinical use. To bridge this gap, it has stated that the Institute aims to spin out companies and build strong collaborations with pharmaceutical partners through licensing and sponsored research agreements.

Delix Therapeutics, a company co-founded by Olson, has licensed UC Davis technology and supported several cutting-edge basic research projects on campus related to psychoplastogens and neuroplasticity. Recently, Delix was named a top academic spinout company by Nature Biotechnology and C&E News, and in 2021, was named one of the Fierce 15 by Fierce biotech.

“Our relationship with UC Davis has been very synergistic, and we are excited to continue that partnership,” said Mark Rus, the CEO of Delix. “Getting the brightest and most creative minds from academia and industry to work together is our best chance to solve many of the grand challenges facing society today.”

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Research

Landmark UK trial to investigate psilocybin for opioid addiction relapse

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For the first time, a government-funded UK trial will investigate psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for targetting relapses associated with opioid addiction, aiming to bring an innovative new therapy to the NHS if successful. 

Research shows that the UK had the world’s highest rate of opioid consumption in 2019, amounting to a serious public health concern. Further, figures show that around 140,000 people are accessing treatment for opioid dependence in the country. Despite the prevalence of opioid addiction, there are currently limited medicines to help prevent relapses during recovery.

Led by Imperial College London, the new study will use psilocybin combined with psychological support in people who have recently undergone detoxification from opioids such as heroin, methadone or buprenorphine.

While previous research into psilocybin has shown its potential as a treatment for conditions such as depression, anxiety PTSD and addiction, this is the first trial looking at the medicine for addiction relapse.

See also  Compass Pathways launches Phase 3 psilocybin trial in UK

The study is one of four projects focused on reducing drug deaths that have been funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) as part of the Addiction Healthcare Goals programme, led by the Office for Life Science (OLS). 

According to the NHIR, the programme forms part of the Department of Health and Social Care’s plan to deliver a world-class treatment and recovery system for people experiencing drug and alcohol addictions.

Dr David Erritzoe, Clinical Director and Deputy Head of the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, project co-lead, said in a press statement: “We know that up to 90% of people relapse back to opioid use within 12 months of finishing detox, so finding new and effective treatments is essential. 

“If this trial is successful, it offers hope for a new type of treatment that could make a significant difference to this group of people.

“If our initial trial is successful, we will work to enable the development of further clinical trials in larger populations, to bring a new treatment to patients and the NHS.”

Participants will attend Imperial’s NIHR Clinical Research Facility at Hammersmith Hospital campus to receive psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy and will receive functional MRI brain scans to enable investigation of the mechanisms of psilocybin in the brain.

Imperial has confirmed that participants will be monitored for up to six months following dosing to track any changes to their opioid use, cravings, mental health outcomes and psychological wellbeing. 

Study co-lead Dr Louise Paterson said in a press statement: “This trial will examine whether we can improve recovery in a severely under-served group of people – namely, those with opioid dependence during their most vulnerable post-detox phase. 

“Clinical studies, including those in our Centre for Psychedelic Research, have shown great promise for this type of treatment in other mental health conditions. We want to see if it works equally well for opioid use disorder.”

Professor Anne Lingford-Hughes, Chair of the Addiction Healthcare Goals, and who is also a Professor of Addiction Biology at Imperial, added: “New approaches to treat drug addiction and reduce drug-related deaths, particularly from overdose, are urgently needed. 

“The Addiction Healthcare Goals programme is pleased to fund promising innovations that have brought together partnerships between industry, academia and organisations involved in delivering treatment and care for those experiencing drug addictions.” 

Recruitment is expected to begin in Spring 2025.

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Psilocybin versus escitalopram for depression shows positive results

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Compass Pathways launches Phase 3 psilocybin trial in UK

A six-month follow-up study of a Phase 2 clinical trial investigating psilocybin versus escitalopram for the treatment of major depressive disorder has shown positive results.

Around 30% of people living with depression in the UK are resistant to current treatments, highlighting an urgent need for new therapies. As the researchers of this study highlight, even for patients who have had their depression successfully treated, there is a high risk of relapse, with one in three patients relapsing within the year.

Equally, SSRI treatments often include side effects such as sexual dysfunction, weight gain, fatigue, and emotional blunting.

The authors note that a key consideration of any treatment of major depressive disorder “is its capacity to produce sustained antidepressant response or remission.”

Mounting evidence is increasingly pointing to psilocybin-assisted therapy as an innovative new treatment for the condition, with clinical trials showing that the therapy is capable of producing rapid and long-lasting antidepressant effects.

However, while clinical trials have investigated the treatment itself, they have not compared the treatment to the current gold standard in depression medications or looked at the long-term effects of the treatment.

This Phase 2 trial is the first to compare the long-term antidepressant effects of these two treatments alongside mental health measures including work and social functioning, connectedness, and meaning in life. 

In the trial, patients with major depressive disorder recruited from a UK hospital were administered either two doses of 25mg of psilocybin along with psychological support, or a six-week course of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) escitalopram in combination with psychological support.

The findings, published in eClinicalMedicine, revealed that both administered treatments saw sustained improvements in depressive symptoms, however, patients who were administered psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy saw greater lasting improvements. 

These improvements included psychosocial functioning, meaning in life, and psychological connectedness.

Dr James Rucker, Consultant Psychiatrist & Senior Clinical Lecturer in Psychopharmacology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, said: “The authors have tended to attribute differences observed in this study to comparative differences between the drugs themselves, however, it is also possible that the results reflect biased reporting between groups. 

“This is more likely here because A) studies involving psilocybin tend to attract those with positive preconceptions about psilocybin and negative preconceptions about conventional antidepressants, and B) study participants were unblinded during the long-term follow-up phase that is reported in the paper, so knew which condition they were allocated to.

“This said, the nature of depression varies hugely between individuals, and this calls for the development of a similarly varied suite of treatment paradigms. Psilocybin therapy is certainly a different paradigm of treatment to escitalopram. 

“The observation of similar levels of effectiveness to antidepressants here is encouraging to see alongside the much larger trials of psilocybin currently underway here in the UK, Europe and the US.”

The authors write: “Key limitations of the study include its suboptimal power to detect small but meaningful differences between treatments, missing data, the potential use of additional interventions during the follow-up period, and reliance on self-reported treatment assessments. 

“These factors may affect the interpretation of the study findings and should be considered when evaluating the results.”

With these considerations in mind, the researchers suggest that the findings warrant further investigation into psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of depression.

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Shortwave Life Sciences psilocybin drug shows positive results in anorexia trial

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Shortwave Life Sciences psilocybin drug positive results anorexia trial

Shortwave Life Sciences has announced it has achieved a significant breakthrough in its ambitions to transform eating disorder care with positive pre-clinical results from its latest pharmacodynamics study, demonstrating the safety of its psilocybin-based drug combination for the treatment of anorexia nervosa.

Anorexia nervosa has one of the highest fatality rates. The condition is a complex mental health condition as well as a metabolic disease, yet no FDA-approved pharmacological treatments are currently available for the condition.

Shortwave Life Sciences in collaboration with Science in Action, an expert pre-clinical GLP-certified lab in Israel, has now tested the safety of buccal administration of Shortwave’s combination drug comprised of psilocybin and a beta-carboline.

The company says this novel treatment provides an expanded mechanism of action and a therapeutic effect superior to psilocybin alone, impacting more than one group of receptors in the brain.

For the study, three groups of rats were given varying doses of the combination drug (0.23ml, 0.5ml, and 1ml), with results showing no adverse effects, weight changes, or behavioural changes following the psychedelic effects.

See also  Short Wave Pharma: innovating eating disorder care with psychedelics

“This is a monumental step forward for Shortwave. Our relentless pursuit of breakthrough mental health treatments comes with the responsibility of ensuring safety at every stage,” commented Shortwave Life Sciences CEO Rivki Stern Youdkevich.

“We are proud of the positive outcomes from this rigorous pre-clinical trial, further validating our patent-pending drug combination and buccal delivery system.

“With this success, we are reaffirmed in our approach to addressing the global mental health crisis.”

In the pre-clinical pharmacodynamics study, all subjects remained healthy and unaffected during the trial, which Shortwave has stated marks a strong foundation for future clinical development.

Furthermore, no adverse events or vital sign changes were reported across all groups, and the results confirmed the safety profile for the psilocybin-based combination drug at elevated doses.

This achievement comes on the heels of the International PCT Examining Committee’s recent acknowledgment of Shortwave’s patent claims for its novel, non-obvious, and industrially applicable mucoadhesive buccal film.

Designed for rapid absorption and bypassing liver and gut degradation, the platform holds transformative potential for patients facing metabolic and psychiatric challenges. This method of administration is designed to be sensitive to patient needs, who may not want to swallow the medicine, and also provides higher bioavailability.

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