Deal report: Boehringer-Sosei pursuing new schizophrenia target
Plus: Gilead- Merus to develop trispecific T cell engagers for cancer, and Armatus-Solid collab
Among the deal highlights of the past seven days is a collaboration between the Sosei Heptares unit of Sosei Group Corp. (Tokyo:4565) and Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH to pursue a new target that they believe could address all the major symptom domains of schizophrenia.
GPR52 is an orphan GPCR highly expressed in the striatum and to a lesser extent in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Within the striatum, GPR52 co-localizes with dopamine D2 receptors in the nucleus accumbens, where it is thought to oppose D2 activity; whereas in the frontal cortex, GPR52 localizes with D1 receptors and essentially works with them. The upshot in both cases is activation of cAMP signaling and stimulation of NMDA receptor-mediated synaptic plasticity, but the result of that activity is hypothesized to lead to different treatment outcomes. ...