BrainCells Novel Antidepressant: Targeting Neurogenesis but not Serotonin?

Implications: It’s not clear just how BrainCells’ BCI-540 works but the company claims the drug acts by way of promoting neurogenesis without an effect on serotonin neurotransmission.   While SSRI’s also promote neurogenesis, a downstream effect believed to favorably impact mood and anxiety, they obviously work by targeting serotonin.   At this stage, it’s hard to say what this really means for BrainCells’ potentially novel drug or its proprietary platform – which aims at developing drug candidates that ‘modulate neurogenesis,’ presumably in brain areas like the hippocampus that may experience injury under stress or depression.  But the idea of developing drugs that target downstream neurocellular events such as the production of various neurotrophic factors (i.e, BDNF) or neurogenesis itself without having all the ‘upstream, start-up’ actions associated with serotonin or norephineprhine reuptake inhibition is very attractive, at least in theory.   

Analysis: The key question is what does BrainCells really have here, either in its drug or in its entire CNS drug development platform.  Lots of drugs have potential to impact neurogenesis while helping depression/anxiety and doing so without serotonin effects.  I suspect a number of them are already in the commercial market.   However, if BCI-540 is doing something further ‘downstream,’ it may potentially carry fewer side effects or work more quickly than the standard 4-6 week trial.   This could amount to something clinically very significant.  Even a novel mechanism of action that can target neurogenesis, and possibly depression, in ways outside the monoamine system (i.e, serotonin, norepinephrine, or dopamine) could be compelling.    

BrainCells’ publicly available intellectual property platform seems largely based on ‘modulating neurogenesis’ with some interesting, quite novel CNS targets.  Their scientific team looks good too, including the Nobel Prize winner Erik Kandel.   For sure, BrainCells is certainly on the right track with early stage marketing and financing their company.   I eagerly await data from this Phase II proof-of-concept study which will help determine efficacy and safety.   I also eagerly await further disclosures from the company about just how BCI-540 works to see if this is really something quite new or something old with new packaging.