Upon clearance by the regulator, Lexicon intends to initiate a phase I clinical trial of LX6171 in healthy volunteers to assess the compound’s safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics.
In preclinical studies, the drug candidate has demonstrated improved learning and memory in healthy and aged mice and has exhibited a good safety profile in toxicology and safety studies.
Lexicon is developing the compound for potential application in the treatment of cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, vascular dementia, attention deficit disorder and fragile X syndrome.
“We believe LX6171 has the potential to enhance learning and memory for patients in need and we look forward to examining its effectiveness in human clinical trials,” said Dr Arthur Sands, president and CEO. “LX6171 is one of what we believe will be many proprietary molecules emanating from Lexicon’s internal target and drug discovery efforts.”
According to the company, the target of LX6171 is a membrane protein that is expressed exclusively in the central nervous system. Its activity is associated with synaptic vesicles and pre-synaptic membranes. Lexicon discovered that mice lacking this protein displayed improved performance in tests of learning and memory, even as they aged.