Mindset Pharma Inc. (OTCQB:MSSTF), a drug discovery and development company creating next-generation psychedelic medicines for treating neurological and psychiatric disorders, has signed up for a research collaboration with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), a health teaching and research institution collaborator of the World Health Organization (WHO) based in Toronto.
The agreement goes as follows: Mindset will sponsor a preclinical trial at CAMH on its lead asset, MSP-1014. a novel and patented second-generation psilocybin-like compound being prepared for first-in-human studies alongside psilocybin.
Investigations have shown that a single dose of psychedelics can cause short as well as long term behavioral effects. In this regard, the study will research how micro and macro doses of both MSP-1014 and psilocybin modulate expression levels of molecular biomarkers of brain plasticity in rats.
By doing so, researchers expect to demonstrate short and long term changes in cFOS and BDNF expression, which could in turn determine the enduring behavioral changes associated with a single psychedelic experience. In addition, they anticipate developing molecular insights into the magnitude of effects of lead compound MSP-1014, compared to psilocybin.
Mindset expects to further work together with CAMH in the future.
Over the present association, the company’s CEO James Lanthier commented, “Mindset’s drug discovery platform is built on a broad spectrum of high-quality scientific data generated in preclinical models. This collaboration will profile and build our understanding of the observed superiority of our lead asset, MSP-1014, to psilocybin at the molecular level.”
Dr. Anh Dzung Lê, senior scientist and head of Neurobiology of Alcohol Lab at CAMH and leading researcher of the study, also commented. “We are eager to work together with Mindset Pharma to contribute to the field of psychedelic knowledge. Given that by the time Canadians reach 40 years of age, 1 in 2 have or have had a mental illness, CAMH scientists and clinicians are dedicated to exploring treatment options that account for the unique needs of individual patients.”
Photo Courtesy of Artur Kornakov on Unsplash.
