{"id":16893,"date":"2025-11-10T19:12:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T19:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sygnaturediscovery.com\/blog\/from-dinosaur-heresies-to-neuroplastogens\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T19:12:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T19:12:28","slug":"from-dinosaur-heresies-to-neuroplastogens","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.sygnaturediscovery.com\/fr\/blog\/from-dinosaur-heresies-to-neuroplastogens\/","title":{"rendered":"From Dinosaur Heresies to Neuroplastogen\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes things need shaking up. When I read Robert Bakker\u2019s book the \u2018The Dinosaur Heresies\u2019 I was hooked, although my dinosaur bone-digging career did not take off. Here was this book turning everything upside down that schoolbooks were espousing about dinosaurs being cold blooded, lumbering, inefficient, not very intelligent creatures. Well, there has been a lot of scientific research since, and even movies\u2026\u2026and now we know! It\u2019s not that dissimilar to lazy adages about the brain from the past \u2013 its fixed once fully developed, we only use 10% of the brain, etc. Maybe that\u2019s an unfair comparison as there have been plenty of interesting ideas from the East and West about the brain, skull, and awareness of personality, psychological state, effect of prayer on the mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Today we know a whole lot more. We know that neuroplasticity is normal brain function in response to the external and internal environment, in development, in adulthood, and in disease. This has led to increased interest in psychoplastogen\u2019s \u2013 molecules that can rapidly invoke long-lasting beneficial effects in psychiatric (depression, PTSD) disorders, and potentially in a range of other disorders: pain, cluster headache, addiction, anxiety, cancer related anxiety\/dysphoria, post-partum depression, eating disorders, and in traumatic injury. How? \u2013 by inducing molecular, structural and functional neuroplastic changes in the brain.<\/span><\/p>\n

The psychoplastogen molecules in question primarily include dissociative anaesthetics, psychedelics, and empathogens, although there are others. Indeed, JnJ\u2019s Spravato\u00ae (esketamine) is a dissociative anaesthetic that has been shown to induce neuroplastic brain changes and is approved for treatment resistant depression as an add-on to oral antidepressants or as monotherapy. However, Spravato\u00ae is administered under supervision and patients must remain supervised by health staff for two hours. What\u2019s more maintenance treatment on Spravato\u00ae is burdensome and frequent (2\/week for the first 4 weeks, 1\/week for weeks 5-8, and then 1\/week or 2\/week after week 9), amounting to 56 separate sessions or 112 hours of treatment time per year. Despite these real-world limitations, Spravato\u2019s annual sales are >$1B and growing suggesting patient willingness to endure given the high unmet need. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With psychedelic and empathogen drug development we are seeing some encouraging Phase 2 & 3 clinical data emerging, innovation in clinical trial design, commercial pricing & infrastructure models being considered that lean-on and potentially improve upon Spravato\u2019s\u00ae, a plethora of chemical matter being explored, some exciting fundamental science, and significant deals including big Pharma stepping into the mix (Abbvie-Gilgamesh<\/a> and Otsuka-MindMed<\/a> deals).<\/span><\/p>\n

Clinical Data Highlights \u2013 by the time this goes out it\u2019ll be out of date, but here goes!<\/span><\/h3>\n

Completed Phase 3 clinical trials include:<\/span><\/p>\n