Neurolixis CEO, Adrian Newman-Tancredi, will present a lecture at the Central European Biomedical Congress as part of a session on treatment-resistant depression (details below). His lecture will focus on recent research on serotonergic 'biased agonists' targeting 5-HT1A receptors. In particular, novel compounds have been identified that target cortical 5-HT1A receptors to elicit neuronal responses, such as ERK phosphorylation and BDNF release, which are markers of antidepressant activity. In animal models, such biased agonists elicit antidepressant-like activity similar to that of ketamine, an effective antidepressant which, however, has substantial side-effects.  The new compounds raise the prospect of achieving robust antidepressant efficacy with superior tolerability.

A video of Adrian's presentation is available on YouTube and a manuscript of the session is published in British Journal of Pharmacology.

4th Central European Biomedical Congress (online): Cracow, Poland
Session 6: Perspectives for therapy of treatment-resistant depression, June 8, 2021

• S.06-1 : Wiesław J. Cubala (Medical University of Gdansk, Poland)
  New developments in understanding mechanisms of drug resistance in the treatment of depression
• S.06-2 : Łukasz Święcicki (Inst. of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw, Poland)
  Somatic therapies for treatment-resistant depression: ECT, TMS, VNS, DBS
• S.06-3 : Paul Willner (Swansea University, Swansea, UK)
  Pharmacological and optogenetic studies on mechanisms of resistance to antidepressant drugs in animal models of treatment-resistant depression
• S.06-4 : Adrian Newman-Tancredi (Neurolixis, Castres, France)
  Cortical 5-HT1A receptor biased agonism – a novel mechanism for effective therapy of treatment-resistant depression