Evotec's EVT 101 Shown to Penetrate the Brain in Man and to Modulate Brain Activity During the Performance of Cogni...( Single-Dose Volunteer fMRI Stu...),Health

Single-Dose, Volunteer fMRI Study Completed and Reported Today

Dosing in Four Week Higher Repeat Dose Study Completed

HAMBURG, Germany and OXFORD, England, March 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Evotec (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT) is pleased to announce the preliminary findings of a double-blind, single-dose, 3-way cross-over study with its orally active NR2B subtype selective NMDA receptor antagonist, EVT 101. The study was performed in 19 healthy young subjects and was conducted at the Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London using functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques (fMRI) to investigate short-term effects of two doses of EVT 101 and placebo. The effects of the compound on cognitive endpoints, changes in local cerebral blood flow, reflecting neuronal activation or deactivation during the performance of cognitive tasks, as well as base-line regional cerebral blood flow, were explored.

All treatments were well tolerated confirming previous observations in healthy subjects.

While there was no evidence of acute improvement in cognitive function, an observation not unexpected in healthy young subjects who frequently perform at an optimum level, the activity of a number of brain regions, known for their role as a memory retrieval network, were selectively modified during the performance of certain tasks, as assessed by analysis of the changes in local cerebral blood flow.

Analysis of the changes in basal regional cerebral blood flow indicated a selective increase in blood flow in one specific region of the cortex, an area rich in NMDA receptors which is considered to be significant for indications such as pain and depression. Basal blood flow in other brain areas was unaffected.

These findings represent the first demonstration of effects of EVT 101 on human brain function at doses that are well tolerated and predicted to be clinically relevant.

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