Chlorpromazine Hydrochloride

*仅供医学专业人士阅读参考认知功能缺陷是精神分裂症谱系障碍（SSDs）的重要症状之一，涵盖注意力、专注力、记忆等多个方面，对疾病进程和患者生活质量有着深远影响。作为SSDs患者的关键治疗手段，抗精神病药物虽然不是专门用于改善认知功能的药物，但由于其受体结合特性，被认为可能对认知功能产生不同程度的影响。然而结果有些差强人意。德国慕尼黑工业大学的Stefan Leucht团队完成了迄今为止最全面的关于抗精神病药物与精神分裂症谱系障碍（SSDs）患者认知功能关系的网络荟萃分析，结果于近日发表在《JAMA·精神病学》期刊上。他们基于包含近千名SSD患者的68项试验数据进行分析后发现，抗精神病药物整体上对认知功能有轻微的改善效果，略胜于安慰剂，但不具有统计学意义。每种药物之间的效果差异不大，其中氯氮平、氟哌啶醇、氟奋乃静在认知功能的改善方面表现垫底，逊色于安慰剂。研究者们表示，抗精神病药物对认知功能的轻微改善可能更多是由于其减少了思维紊乱和其它阳性症状（比如激动、妄想、幻觉等），而非直接作用于认知功能本身。论文首页截图在这项研究中，Stefan Leucht等人通过系统回顾和随机效应网络荟萃分析，评估了抗精神病药物对精神分裂症谱系障碍（SSDs）患者认知功能的影响。研究的主要数据来源于Cochrane精神分裂症组试验注册库，截至2023年6月25日，共筛选并纳入68项随机对照试验，涉及9525名SSDs患者。这些患者的平均年龄为35.1岁，男性占70%。研究的主要结局是患者整体认知功能的变化，次要结局是患者具体认知领域（如处理速度、工作记忆、语言学习等）、生活质量和社会功能的变化。结果显示，整体上，抗精神病药物对认知功能的改善效果有限，虽然相比安慰剂表现出一定的优势，但效应值（SMD）较小，并且不同药物之间的差异不明显。具体来说，在改善认知的效果上，吗茚酮（Molindone，MOL）和盐酸硫利达嗪（Thioridazine，THIOR）分别排名第一和第二。不过这两种药物的分析结果都是基于单项小规模研究（15-22人数），且仅改善大脑处理速度这一个认知领域。同样，位列第五的氯丙嗪（Chlorpromazine，CPZ）也存在这个问题，但尽管相关研究数量多了些，总参与人数依然较少（N=101），且数据来源于二十世纪六七十年代的随机临床试验。相比之下，位列第三、第四的帕利哌酮（Paliperidone，PAL）和舍吲哚（Sertindole，SER），其分析结果基于近年来的研究数据，与安慰剂相比，表现出中等效果（SMD -0.43，95%CI  -0.93至0.08 ；SMD -0.57，95%CI -1.03至 -0.11）。排名倒数的三位，则是氟奋乃静（Fluphenazine，FLU）（SMD = 0.15, 95% CI = -0.39至0.69）、氟哌啶醇（Haloperidol，HAL）（SMD 0.04，95%CI -0.25至0.33）、氯氮平（Clozapine，CLZ）（SMD 0.12，95%CI -0.23至0.48），落后于安慰剂。这一结果与它们的强效多巴胺型受体阻断作用相符。其他排名靠前的药物还有喹硫平（Quetiapine，QUE）、布瑞吡唑（Brexpiprazole，BRE）、利培酮（Risperidone，RIS）、唑吡坦（Zotepine，ZOT）、奥氮平（Olanzapine，OLA）、氨磺必利（Amisulpride，AMI）、鲁拉西酮（Lurasidone，LUR）、阿立哌唑（Aripiprazole，ARI）、齐拉西酮（Ziprasidone，ZIP）。排名（PLB-安慰剂）在额外的探索性事后分析中，研究按照抗精神病药物的结合受体将其分为四个组。结果显示，作用于肾上腺素能受体、5-羟色胺能药物、毒蕈碱型受体、多巴胺受体的四组药物，相比于安慰剂对患者认知功能都有改善的趋势。按作用受体分类时，每组抗精神病药物都有点小优但不明显某些药物在个别领域表现出较为积极的效果，比如刚才提到的吗茚酮和盐酸硫利达嗪对于SSD患者大脑处理速度的提高。相比于安慰剂，布瑞吡唑在视觉学习方面显示出小幅但显著的积极效果，帕利哌酮在语言学习和工作记忆方面有改善的趋势。研究还评估了患者的生活质量和社会功能，然而整体来看抗精神病药物在这些方面的表现同样有限，未能显著优于安慰剂，而且纳入分析的各项研究中认知评估工具所提供的证据也不明确。药物对具体认知功能的改善效果过去相关的荟萃分析和网络荟萃分析存在时效性不足、新药物的纳入有限、方法学质量较低等限制，并缺乏对抗精神病药物与安慰剂的直接比较。这项研究迄今为止最大的相关领域研究，表明尽管某些药物显示出小幅认知改善，但大多数抗精神病药物的效应较小，且部分药物的结果因样本小而不具备足够的意义，很难区分这些改善是否源于减少思维紊乱等症状。这些结果为临床实践中抗精神病药物的选择提供了有价值的最新见解，同时也强调了统一认知评估标准的重要性，以便未来研究能够更有效地比较不同药物的效果。另外，研究者们呼吁开发新的抗精神病药物，特别是那些针对认知缺陷的新型机制药物，以更好地满足SSDs患者的治疗需求。参考文献：[1]https://jamanetwork-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/2825154本文作者丨张艾迪

iStock/ ktsimage From Eli Lilly to Karuna Therapeutics to current owner Bristol Myers Squibb, the newly approved schizophrenia drug had quite the journey to market. Former Karuna and Lilly executives discuss the “accidental” and “serendipitous” discovery. What began as a therapeutic candidate for Alzheimer’s disease at Eli Lilly completed its development journey Thursday in the hands of Bristol Myers Squibb as Cobenfy, the first novel treatment for schizophrenia in 35 years . Andrew Miller, former CEO of Karuna Therapeutics who co-invented the drug, said this trajectory is not uncommon in neuropsychiatric diseases. “The only treatments we have for schizophrenia was because chlorpromazine, which was an anesthetic drug in the ’50s, was discovered to have antipsychotic effects . . . and that was kind of the parent of all of the currently available treatments for schizophrenia,” Miller told BioSpace . Similarly, he added, the first approved treatment for depression was an anti-tuberculosis medicine. “When you look at the history of psychiatric drug development, the source of innovation, in many respects, is serendipitous, human to human findings,” Miller said. Weight Loss Rivals Were Once Alzheimer’s Partners In the mid-1990s, Lilly and current obesity and diabetes archrival Novo Nordisk were collaborating on a muscarinic acetylcholine receptor stimulator agonist to treat cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s disease. Acetylcholine is the neurotransmitter through which cholinergic neurons, which are involved in memory and learning, send their messages. Steven Paul People with Alzheimer’s lose these neurons early in the disease process, said Steven Paul, who oversaw the program at Lilly. “So, our idea in those days was if we could stimulate the receptors for acetylcholine, maybe in the absence of those neurons we could still enhance memory and learning,” Paul told BioSpace . This idea birthed xanomeline, an acetylcholine receptor agonist that the partners studied in a large Phase II trial. The results showed xanomeline had a “modest” but “significant” effect in improving memory, Paul said. However, the trial also revealed adverse events such as nausea, vomiting and excess salivation—effects associated with stimulating muscarinic receptors. Ultimately, the companies made the decision not to proceed with xanomeline “because we felt we didn’t have the requisite tolerability safety margin for patients with Alzheimer’s,” Paul said. But, as part of the trial, the companies had also studied xanomeline’s effect on “abnormal behaviors” in Alzheimer’s such as hallucinations and delusions. “The drug seemed to treat these psychotic symptoms, and it seemed to prevent the emergence of these psychotic symptoms in these patients,” Paul said. With the exception of the adverse events, “that was the most striking finding.” Paul and colleagues published their findings in a 1997 paper . “This was by accident,” Paul said. “We didn’t really think this might happen.” A few years later, researchers at Lilly wondered if these same effects might translate to patients with schizophrenia. To answer this question, the company conducted a small study at Indiana University. “And sure enough, the drug seemed to work in those patients as well,” Paul said. But the adverse effects remained, and the companies did not pursue this indication either. KarXT Is Born Enter PureTech Health, where Miller, who was vice president in 2009, had an idea: Instead of tweaking xanomeline for more selectivity and fewer side effects—which Paul said “probably wasn’t going to work anyway”—why not combine it with a muscarinic antagonist molecule that blocks the peripheral side effects while leaving efficacy unaffected? In 2009, PureTech founded Karuna Pharmaceuticals, which later changed its name to Karuna Therapeutics, to take the candidate forward, with Miller at the helm. Andrew Miller “It took a lot of effort to get from that concept to the actual, real matter of KarXT,” Miller said. Perusing the scientific literature, Karuna identified 65 acetylcholine receptor agonist molecules and 114 muscarinic antagonist molecules. “So that gives you 7,410 possible combinations.” Ultimately, Karuna selected 95 parameters, some specific to the agonist molecule, others specific to the antagonist, and still others about how combinations would function. At the end of this process, the researchers stuck with xanomeline as the agonist and selected trospium as the antagonist, and the combination became KarXT. Interestingly, “[Karuna] couldn’t raise any money. There was very little interest,” said Paul, who joined the company as CEO in 2018 after Karuna published Phase I data. “Sometimes these are the best companies, when people turn you down.” The Phase I trial , in which 70 healthy volunteers received either KarXT or xanomeline plus placebo, showed a significant difference in terms of side effects: 64% of patients in the xanomeline/placebo group saw the most common xanomeline-associated side effects vs. 34% in the KarXT cohort. These early results generated some excitement. In 2018, Karuna raised $42 million in a Series A round, followed six months later by a $68 million Series B , which was later topped up to $80 million . That same year, Paul and Miller took the company public . Then, in November 2019, KarXT met the primary efficacy endpoint in the Phase II EMERGENT-1 trial , where it was also found to be generally well-tolerated, “and our stock just went off the roof,” Paul said. According to Biopharma Dive , Karuna’s value increased from around $400 million to nearly $3 billion following this data drop. BMS Buys Karuna for $14B By December 2023, Karuna had two successful Phase III trials under its belt, and BMS came knocking. Paul said they’d actually been in discussions with BMS since the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in January 2023 but it wasn’t until the company submitted the New Drug Application for KarXT in September 2023 that the pharma company was ready to commit to buying Karuna. “I presented to them the story, and we didn’t hear from them afterwards until later that year,” Paul said. “Then, once we filed the NDA with the FDA, we had them and another company kind of beating down our door.” While Paul wouldn’t reveal the name of the other suitor, he did say that Karuna had “narrowed it to a bit of a bake-off with those two companies.” Prior to agreeing to the buyout deal with BMS, Paul said Karuna had intended to launch KarXT itself. “We were building a sales force. We were building a commercial presence.” In the end, however, Karuna decided BMS’ offer was in the best interest of its stakeholders. “When I joined the company, as a private company of maybe $20- $30-, $40 million bucks . . . we went public, and maybe we were worth at most $400 [million]. And then we were offered $14 billion dollars for the company, in less than five years.” He called the decision bittersweet “because if the drug had been approved, if we had ourselves commercialized it, if it became a mega billion-dollar blockbuster drug ourselves, well, the company’s value would be much greater than $14 billion dollars.” Paul calls KarXT “one of my early children” and said he is pleased with its progress. “They’re [BMS] doing a great job with it, so far as I can tell,” he said. While BMS is starting with schizophrenia, KarXT/Cobenfy’s journey may be far from over. A recent post-hoc analysis showed that a subset of patients in the pivotal Phase III EMERGENT-1 and EMERGENT-2 studies with predominantly negative symptoms of schizophrenia—such as apathy and social withdrawal—at baseline saw a larger effect on negative symptoms than the overall trial population. And the drug may also treat the disease’s cognitive symptoms, including poor memory and low attention span, said Paul, adding that another paper on this was recently accepted for publication. In a return to its roots, BMS has also shared plans to test Cobenfy in Alzheimer’s disease psychosis, as well as bipolar disorder. “Our expectation is that KarXT is our first foray into schizophrenia and serious mental illnesses,” Carlos Dortrait, SVP and general manager of U.S. immunology and neuroscience at BMS, previously told BioSpace , “but we are looking at expanding and looking very broadly across many diseases.”