NIDA’s animal testing capability critical in assessing the therapeutic potential of Psylo’s compounds
Psylo, a psychedelics-inspired biotechnology company, has entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Psylo and NIDA will collaborate on the preclinical development and testing of Psylo’s novel compounds using the head-twitch response (HTR) in rodents to assess their potential psychedelic-like properties. The experiments will be conducted in the Designer Drug Research Unit of NIDA’s Intramural Research Program located in Baltimore, Maryland.
Using artificial intelligence, Psylo has developed a pipeline of next-generation psychedelic drugs optimized to treat a variety of mental illnesses. Measuring the ability of those drugs to elicit psychedelic-like effects in preclinical studies is a critical step in assessing their potential in treating a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders. As a scientific leader in studying effects of psychoactive drugs and in medication development, NIDA will collaborate with Psylo to undertake this important work.
NIDA’s team of scientists have recently begun conducting HTR experiments using Psylo’s compounds, several of which will be tested in this assay over the next few months. . The collaboration marks a critical stage in the progression of Psylo’s research program which will prove instrumental in substantiating a number of Psylo’s provisional patent applications and will inform clinical candidate selection.
According to Professor Laura Jacobson, Psylo’s Head of Behavioural Pharmacology, “HTR is a critical gating point in Psylo’s preclinical development pipeline. In addition to delineating between hallucinogenic and non-hallucinogenic drug candidates (psychoplastogens), HTR can rapidly inform on drug efficacy, brain penetration, metabolism and potency. Since NIDA is using a recently validated high frame-rate video assessment methodology we are confident the assay will deliver objective, reproducible and trustworthy results.”
NIDA laboratories have the infrastructure to conduct HTR experiments for a range of reference compounds. “By running Psylo’s compounds through the HTR model and comparing the results to known psychedelic compounds like psilocin, LSD, and DOI, we can compare our lead compounds to a verified benchmark.” said Dr. Samuel Banister, CSO of Psylo. “This provides a key decision point for translating our R&D from the bench to the bedside.”
About Psylo
Psylo is a preclinical biotech using computational chemistry to develop therapeutics inspired by psychedelics. By optimising the pharmacology of next-generation psychedelic compounds we are developing medicines which will be applicable to a much broader patient group. Psylo is based at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.
Founder/Chief Executive Officer: Joshua Ismin
Founder/Chief Scientific Officer: Dr. Samuel Banister
Head of Behavioural Pharmacology: Professor Laura Jacobson
