Developing Psychedelic Treatments For Traumatic Brain Injury: Algernon Launches New Program

Biopharma company Algernon Pharmaceuticals AGNPF has launched a new clinical research program via a subsidiary.

The goal is to treat Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) with the company’s proprietary DMT compound AP-188. 
Algernon NeuroScience, or AGN Neuro, has an ongoing stroke research program through which it is conducting a Phase 1 that it hopes will move directly into a Phase 2 TBI study in the fall of 2023.

See also: New Research Program - Effects Of Psychedelic Group Ceremonies On Veterans With Traumatic Brain Injury

To further support the new TBI research program, AGN Neuro has appointed Andrew Maas as a scientific and medical advisor.

Maas believes there is “a great need to improve the recovery potential in patients after TBI” and that neuroplasticity’s role is “a promising target” for which DMT holds potential.

Meanwhile, the global TBI treatment market is projected to jump from $3.1 billion in 2021 to $4.5 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 8.0%, according to a recent study considering TBI’s growing prevalence and awareness on the role of early diagnosis, rising preference for minimally invasive procedures and the adoption of advanced medical devices and products together with increasing implementation of healthcare services policies among governments.

More On TBI And How DMT Might Help

TBIs can be caused by forceful bumps, blows, or jolts to the head or body, or from an object that pierces the skull and enters the brain as explained by the NIH.

Some types of TBI can cause temporary or short-term problems with normal brain function, yet more serious injuries can lead to severe and permanent disability, and even death.

Also, while some injuries are primary (damage is immediate), TBI can hold secondary outcomes, occurring gradually over the course of hours, days or weeks later resulting from reactive processes following the initial head trauma.

Last, brain injuries can be divided into penetrating (open TBI) and non-penetrating (blunt TBI). While the former happens when an object pierces the skull and enters the brain tissue (and typically damaging only part of the brain,) the latter is caused by an external force strong enough to move the brain within the skull -including falls, motor vehicle crashes, sports injuries, blast injury or being struck by an object.

Accidents such as explosions, natural disasters or other extreme events may cause both penetrating and non-penetrating TBI in the same person.

At the moment, no drugs are approved for the treatment of TBI of any severity. Nonetheless, stroke and TBI share several things in common, and for the former DMT has demonstrated benefit in preclinical studies.

DMT works as an agonist of sigma-1 -a receptor that is part of the body’s natural defense against physiological stresses and that is elevated following TBI- by increasing the Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) a protein that plays a key role in neuroplasticity and that is also a natural part of the body but sees its levels decreased following TBI.

Photo: Benzinga edit with photo by Luis Quintero on Pexels and Harbin on Wikimedia Commons.