Drug discovery research on new pain targets with human genetic validation, including the voltage-gated sodium channel Na1.7, is being pursued to address the unmet medical need with respect to chronic pain and the rising opioid epidemic. As part of early research efforts on this front, we have previously developed Na1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInhibitors of the voltage-gated sodium channel Na1.7 are being investigated as pain therapeutics due to compelling human genetics. We previously identified Na1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe voltage-gated sodium channel Na1.7 has received much attention from the scientific community due to compelling human genetic data linking gain- and loss-of-function mutations to pain phenotypes. Despite this genetic validation of Na1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPotent and selective antagonists of the voltage-gated sodium channel Na1.7 represent a promising avenue for the development of new chronic pain therapies. We generated a small molecule atropisomer quinolone sulfonamide antagonist AMG8379 and a less active enantiomer AMG8380.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCannabinoid receptors (CBRs) play an important role in a variety of physiological functions and have been considered drug targets for obesity and psychiatric disorders. In particular, the CB1R is highly expressed in brain regions crucial to learning and memory processes, and several lines of evidence indicate that pharmacological blockade of this receptor could have therapeutic applications in the treatment of cognitive disorders. In this study, we investigated whether MK-7128 (0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSustained attention is defined as the ability or capacity to remain focused on the occurrence of rare events over long periods of time. We describe here the development of a novel, operant-based attention task that can be learned by mice in 8-10 days. Mice were trained on a 2-choice visual discrimination task in an operant chamber, wherein the correct response on any given trial was a lever-press cued by a stimulus light.
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