Psychedelic therapy (PT) is an emerging paradigm with great potential for treating mental illnesses including depression, addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder, and potentially others. Ace Therapeutics is a preclinical contract research organization specializing in psychotherapeutic drug development. We provide drug screening, drug mechanism of action studies, drug discovery and development services based on psychiatric targets to our global client. Our services accelerate the R&D process for innovative psychedelic drugs and reduce associated costs.

Introduction of Psychedelic Drugs Used for Psychiatric Disorders

Psychedelic drugs consist of a group of psychoactive compounds that induce temporary physiological changes leading to distortions in cognition, emotion and perception. They typically have high-affinity agonist effects on many serotonin and other biogenic amine receptors. Although many psychedelic drugs interact with many receptors, their primary and defining activity is mediated by their activation of serotonin 5-hydroxytryptamine 2A receptors. A confluence of factors has renewed interest in the scientific understanding and translational potential of psychedelic drugs such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), mescaline, and psilocybin: the desire for additional approaches to mental health care, incremental progress in basic and clinical research, and the reconsideration and relaxation of existing drug policies. With the United States Food and Drug Administration's designation of psilocybin as a "Breakthrough Therapy" for treatment-resistant depression, a new path has been forged for the conveyance of psychedelics to the clinic.

Fig. 1 A bipartite model of serotonergic functioning focused on the effects of post-synaptic 5-HT1AR and 5-HT2AR signaling. (Carhart H. R., et al., 2017)

Our Psychedelic Drug Development Services

Ace Therapeutics offers drug discovery services for preclinical stage psychedelic drug development in the field of psychiatric disorders for biotech and pharmaceutical clients worldwide. Our services cover all aspects of early-stage drug discovery and development for our clients. This includes:

• Basic research on the mechanisms of psychiatric disorders.
• Drug screening and optimization based on disease physiology and targets.
• Computer-aided drug design.
• Drug chemical design and synthesis.
• Identification of clinical candidate compounds.
• Drug activity testing.
• Drug ADME and PK studies.
• Safety and mechanistic studies.

We are committed to providing our clients with a one-stop integrated service platform from early target-based drug discovery to commercialization delivery for your psychedelic drug development.

Our Capabilities

• High-throughput screening of lead compounds

We use highly reliable in vitro screening techniques and functional assays to identify which 5-HT receptor subtypes and monoamine reuptake transporter proteins are targeted by NCEs (New Chemical Entities). Additionally, we screen cascade reactions to characterize the mode of action of novel serotonergic compounds and identify key pharmacological properties that could serve as markers of drug safety.

• The rodent head-twitch model and prediction of efficacy

Head-twitches in mice and wet dog shakes, their equivalent in rats, are widely assumed to be functional models of 5-HT2A receptor agonism. We offer established and validated head-twitching models to test the hallucinogenic activity of new compounds and predict their potential potency as human hallucinogens.

• Intracerebral microdialysis and pharmacological characterization

We utilize intracerebral microdialysis to neurochemically and pharmacologically characterize newly screened psychedelics and hallucinogens, thereby providing our clients with insights into mechanisms of action and improving signatures of potential safety. This includes:

• Study the effects of the drug-candidate in specific brain regions.
• Study the speed of onset of drug effect, rate of change and maximal effects on extracellular monoamine concentrations and duration of action.
• Elucidate whether a drug-candidate has an intraneuronal site of action or binds to reuptake transporters on the external surface of the presynaptic terminal.
• Explore the relationship between the plasma drug concentrations and neurochemical effects in specific brain regions.
• Microdialysis can be combined with automated locomotor activity monitoring in rats or mice to look for correlations between neurochemical effects in the brain and effects on behavior.

With an advanced drug discovery platform and psychopharmacology expertise, Ace Therapeutics is committed to providing clients with efficient, one-stop psychedelic drug development services to advance the development of therapies for your mental illness. Please contact us for more details. Our experts will work with you to develop innovative psychedelic.

References

1. Carhart H. R.; et al. The therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs: past, present, and future. Neuropsychopharmacology. 42.11 (2017): 2105-2113.
2. Heal, D. J., et al. Experimental strategies to discover and develop the next generation of psychedelics and entactogens as medicines. Neuropharmacology. 225 (2023): 109375.