Alcoholism

Our goal at Pathways Neuro Pharma, Inc. is to ease the suffering of the millions of people whose lives are under the influence of alcoholism. We are focusing on new discoveries of the physiological underpinnings of substance abuse; the factors that make it a disease, not a character flaw or moral failing.

The Pathways proprietary combination of gene therapy along with a pharmaceutical drug approach targets a master reward regulatory pathway that has been proven to exist not only in higher mammals, but also in test animals that have been trained to mimic human alcoholism disease. Our approach seeks to rebalance this reward processing system so that those victims of chronic alcoholism can lead more normal lives. 

We are working at the intersection of neurological pathways that are involved in coordinating consciousness with the production of the brain's mood-regulating chemicals. Demonstrations using functional MRI and single unit electrophysiology have closely linked this coordinating function with the brain region called the habenula. Recent discoveries have uncovered an important role for a neuroreceptor called GPR139. It is found only in the nervous system and is highly concentrated in the habenula. When activated, GPR139 regulates the habenula’s role in the coordination of incoming positive and negative reward signals originating in the frontal lobe of the brain with outgoing regulatory signals to the mid-brain production centers of the mood regulators serotonin and dopamine.

We are working with academic partners and qualified Clinical Research Organizations for a DNA therapy to increase the expression of GPR139 receptors and for a discovery program for pharmaceutical drug candidates that activate GPR139. We have successfully manufactured DNA constructs which, when administered in an animal model, have increased the expression of GPR139 in brain tissue. Also, in an already completed animal trial, the pharmaceutical activation of the GPR139-habenular pathway resulted in decreased alcohol consumption, with the effect most pronounced in subgroups of highly compulsive drinkers. Of particular interest, the treatment also decreased hyperalgesia, the increase in pain sensitivity felt in alcohol-dependent test animals that are denied access to alcohol. We believe this may be critically important to reducing the rate of relapse to alcoholism.