RespireRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. Announces the Publication of a Review Article Highlighting the Potential Use of GABAkine Neuromodulators for the Treatment of Tinnitus – GlobeNewswire
Glen Rock, N.J., May 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — RespireRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OTCQB:RSPI) (“RespireRx” or the “Company”), a leader in the discovery and development of innovative and revolutionary treatments to combat diseases caused by disruption of neuronal signaling, is pleased to announce that scientists associated with the Company have published a manuscript that raises the hope of novel treatments for tinnitus, the perception of sound in the absence of exte…….
Glen Rock, N.J., May 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — RespireRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OTCQB:RSPI) (“RespireRx” or the “Company”), a leader in the discovery and development of innovative and revolutionary treatments to combat diseases caused by disruption of neuronal signaling, is pleased to announce that scientists associated with the Company have published a manuscript that raises the hope of novel treatments for tinnitus, the perception of sound in the absence of external auditory stimulation. Tinnitus is highly prevalent, with 10-15% of the general population worldwide affected, a statistic that can double in the elderly. The disorder can be markedly debilitating and is associated with and likely causal of anxiety, irritability, depression, sleep loss, social isolation, and suicidal ideation. While there are no treatments that demonstrate any robust efficacy, decades old data from pioneers in the field first discussed the impact of loss of neural inhibition in the disease.
Dr. Jeffrey M. Witkin, Rok Cerne, James M. Cook, and Arnold Lippa, members of the scientific team at RespireRx, and Jodi L. Smith, Ph.D., MD, a neurosurgeon with Ascension St. Vincent in Indianapolis reviewed evidence that loss of neural inhibition due to alterations in GABA neurotransmission might play a role in the etiology of tinnitus. In the manuscript, recently published in Biochemical Pharmacology, “Can GABAkines Quiet the Noise? The GABAA Receptor Neurobiology and Pharmacology of Tinnitus” (https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S0006-2952(22)00161-7), the authors review convergent data sets from previously published anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology reports, which strongly support the concept that downregulation of GABA, the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the human brain, and/or its receptors might act as a key regulator of tinnitus. In support of this idea, individual patient reports and several clinical trials have reported improvement in tinnitus symptoms with the use of older generation positive allosteric modulators of GABA (GABAkines). Unfortunately, this positive effect of GABAkines has been confounded by the presence of side effects, such as sedation, which are typically seen with these drugs.
Although older benzodizepine GABAkines like Valium® and Xanax® have and continue to be major world medicines, a resurgence in the identification of improved GABAkines has arisen recently with several companies moving compounds along their development pipeline, including KRM-II-81and analogs from RespireRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. Dr. Witkin (Research Fellow with RespireRx) first described ganaxolone, a neuroactive steroid, as a novel anticonvulsant when he previously headed the Drug Development Group at the National Institutes on Drug Abuse. Ganaxolone was approved this year as Ztalmy® for the treatment of seizures in children suffering from CDKL5-Deficiency Disorder, a rare genetic disease.
As the first author of the current manuscript on tinnitus, Dr. Witkin said, “It is a blessing to see experimental compounds ultimately …….
