New Paradigms In Neuroscience And Related Targets For Drug Discovery

Improving and Accelerating Therapeutic Development for Nervous System Disorders is the summary of a workshop convened by the IOM Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders to examine opportunities to accelerate early phases of drug development for nervous system drug discovery. Workshop participants discussed challenges in neuroscience research for enabling faster entry of potential treatments into first-in-human trials, explored how new and emerging tools and technologies may improve the efficiency of research, and considered mechanisms to facilitate a more effective and efficient development pipeline. There are several challenges to the current drug development pipeline for nervous system disorders. The fundamental etiology and pathophysiology of many nervous system disorders are unknown and the brain is inaccessible to study, making it difficult to develop accurate models. Patient heterogeneity is high, disease pathology can occur years to decades before becoming clinically apparent, and diagnostic and treatment biomarkers are lacking. In addition, the lack of validated targets, limitations related to the predictive validity of animal models - the extent to which the model predicts clinical efficacy - and regulatory barriers can also impede translation and drug development for nervous system disorders. Improving and Accelerating Therapeutic Development for Nervous System Disorders identifies avenues for moving directly from cellular models to human trials, minimizing the need for animal models to test efficacy, and discusses the potential benefits and risks of such an approach. This report is a timely discussion of opportunities to improve early drug development with a focus toward preclinical trials.

On March 3-4, 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders held a workshop in Washington, DC, bringing together key stakeholders to discuss opportunities for improving the integrity, efficiency, and validity of clinical trials for nervous system disorders. Participants in the workshop represented a range of diverse perspectives, including individuals not normally associated with traditional clinical trials. The purpose of this workshop was to generate discussion about not only what is feasible now, but what may be possible with the implementation of cutting-edge technologies in the future.

Neurological Disorders is written for researchers in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry who use animal models in research and development of drugs for neurological disorders such as neurofibromatosis, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington disease, ALS, and the epilepsies. Neurological Disorders has introductory chapters expressing the view of the role and relevance of animal models for drug discovery and development for the treatment of psychiatric disorders from the perspective of (a) academic basic neuroscientific research, (b) applied pharmaceutical drug discovery and development, and (c) issues of clinical trial design and regulatory agencies limitations. Each volume examines the rationale, use, robustness and limitations of animal models in each therapeutic area covered and discuss the use of animal models for target identification and validation. The clinical relevance of animal models is discussed in terms of major limitations in cross-species comparisons, clinical trial design of drug candidates, and how clinical trial endpoints could be improved. The aim of this series of volumes on Animal and Translational Models for CNS Drug Discovery is to identify and provide common endpoints between species that can serve to inform both the clinic and the bench with the information needed to accelerate clinically-effective CNS drug discovery. This is the second volume in the three volume-set, Animal and Translational Models for CNS Drug Discovery 978-0-12-373861-5, which is also available for purchase individually. Clinical, academic, government and industry perspectives fostering integrated communication between principle participants at all stages of the drug discovery process Critical evaluation of animal and translational models improving transition from drug discovery and clinical development Emphasis on what results mean to the overall drug discovery process Exploration of issues in clinical trial design and conductance in each therapeutic area

Using the most well-studied behavioral analyses of animal subjects to promote a better understanding of the effects of disease and the effects of new therapeutic treatments on human cognition, Methods of Behavior Analysis in Neuroscience provides a reference manual for molecular and cellular research scientists in both academia and the pharmaceutic

Following significant advances in deep learning and related areas interest in artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly grown. In particular, the application of AI in drug discovery provides an opportunity to tackle challenges that previously have been difficult to solve, such as predicting properties, designing molecules and optimising synthetic routes. Artificial Intelligence in Drug Discovery aims to introduce the reader to AI and machine learning tools and techniques, and to outline specific challenges including designing new molecular structures, synthesis planning and simulation. Providing a wealth of information from leading experts in the field this book is ideal for students, postgraduates and established researchers in both industry and academia.

In the genomic era of 1990s-2000s, pharmaceutical research moved to target-based drug discovery which enabled development of a number of small molecule drugs against a wide range of diseases. In many cases however, drugs that arose from genomics failed, questioning the validity of the targets and the suitability of target-based drug discovery as an optimal strategy for all disease states. For monogenic diseases, target-based approaches may be well-suited to the identification of novel therapies. Most diseases, however, are caused by a combination of several genetic and environmental factors and are likely to require simultaneous modulation of multiple molecular targets/pathways for successful treatment. For such diseases, reductionist approaches focusing on individual targets rather than biological networks are unlikely to succeed and new drug development strategies are required. In search of more successful approaches, the pharmaceutical industry is moving towards phenotypic screening beyond individual genes/targets. However, this requires rethinking of diseases and drug discovery approaches from a network and systems biology perspective. Since returning to the pre-genomics era of screening drug candidates in laborious animal models is not a feasible solution, the industry needs to evolve a new paradigm of phenotypic drug discovery within the context of systems biology. Such a paradigm must combine physiologically and disease relevant biological substrates with sufficient throughput, operational simplicity and statistical vigour. Biomarker strategies for translational medicine, as well as preclinical safety and selectivity assessments, would also need to be revised to adapt to the target agnostic style. This focused issue aims to discuss strategies, key concepts and technologies related to systems-based approaches in drug development. Design and implementation of innovative biological assays, featuring multiple target strategies, and rational drug design in the absence of target knowledge during the early drug discovery are illustrated with examples. Specific topics include: • The need for systems-based approaches in drug development • Phenotypic screening strategies • Compound libraries (natural product inspired compound collections) • Target deconvolution and identification • Target agnostic lead discovery and optimization • Multi-target approaches and decoding the phenotype (understanding biological interactions and multiscale systems modelling) • Translational aspects • Early evaluation of selectivity and safety in a target agnostic manner