Selective Muscarinic Receptor Agonist Xanomeline as a Novel Treatment Approach for Schizophrenia

• DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.06091591
• Publication Date: 2008-07-02T00:44:53Z
• Authors: Anantha Shekhar; William Z. Potter; Jeffrey Lightfoot; John Lienemann; Sanjay Dubé; Craig Mallinckrodt; Frank P. Bymaster; David L. McKinzie; Christian C. Felder
• Keywords: Muscarinic agonist

Objective: There are significant unmet needs in the treatment of schizophrenia, especially for cognitive impairment, negative syndrome, and function. Preclinical data suggest that agonists with selective affinity acetylcholine muscarinic receptors provide a potentially new mechanism to treat schizophrenia. The authors studied xanomeline, relatively type 1 4 (M M ) receptor agonist, determine if this agent is effective Method: In pilot study, examined efficacy xanomeline on clinical outcomes subjects schizophrenia (N=20) utilizing double-blind, placebo-controlled, 4-week design. Outcome measures included Positive Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) Brief Psychiatric Rating (BPRS), Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scale, test battery designed measure function patients Results: Subjects treated did significantly better than placebo group total BPRS scores PANSS scores. battery, showed improvements most robustly verbal learning short-term memory Conclusions: These results support further investigation as novel approach treating