Neuronascent, Inc

I hadn't heard of this until it came across one of the Down syndrome lists I'm on. It'll be curious to see what this neurogenesis program involves.

 

Neuronascent Receives State and Federal Funding for Its Neurogenesis Therapeutic Programs

CLARKSVILLE, MD--(Marketwire - Jun 2, 2011) - Neuronascent, Inc. announced today that the Company has received funding from both the federal government, under the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project for the development of its preclinical therapeutic candidates for neurodegenerative diseases, and from Maryland's Biotechnology Center, to accelerate development of its neurogenic candidate for Down syndrome. The latter project is a collaboration with Dr. Barbara Slusher, Chief Scientific Officer, Johns Hopkins University's NeuroTranslational Brain Center.

Neuronascent aims to develop non-invasive therapeutics for central nervous system indications with high unmet need. The company's lead compounds, currently in preclinical testing, are developed to regenerate neurons and provide specialized neuroprotection for newly generated and surviving neurons under neurodegenerative diseases. These potentially disease-modifying effects aim to improve behavioral outcomes including motor function and memory. Animal studies with these compounds have previously shown a reversal of cognitive loss in aged mice to young levels.

"These funds will allow us to provide proof-of-principle that our neurogenic therapeutic may be effective for Down syndrome, a new target for drug development," said Judith Kelleher-Andersson, Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer. "These funds also afford us the opportunity to pursue multiple preclinical studies to further develop our lead agents for clinical trials in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease."

Founded in 2004 by Dr. Kelleher-Andersson, Neuronascent, Inc. is a small-molecule central nervous system drug discovery company, developing novel therapeutics using their neurogenesis discovery platform. Neuronascent has laboratories in Rockville and Frederick, Maryland.

For more information contact: jkelleher@neuronascent.com

Loads of Information about Longvida Curcumin

Alright, well, this is the post I've wanted to get up for awhile. All the loads of information I've gotten about Longvida and continue to forward to folks who are interested in more information about this. So, here goes . . .

Why is Longvida Curcumin different & better than just plain 'ole Turmeric?

Longvida is based on a patent-pending invention Verdue Sciences license from UCLA that was developed by a group in the Alzheimers center there. As you probably know, curcumin has tremendous promise as a potential Alzheimer's treatment and anti-inflammatory and has at least 10 different neuroprotective effects, but its not water soluble or bioavailable via oral dosing. What we have done is scale up this technology that coats curcumin microparticles with an amphiphilic/lipophilic coating. The support for its absorption is based on pK data and research from UCLA showing it reverses amyloid beta, tau tangles, neuroinflammation, and neurooxidation in Alzheimer's models. The formula was selected from hundreds of mainly lipid-based formulas that were tried and this one was selected based on bioavailability data in animals and humans. Of particular interest is what we believe to be the highest brain curcumin levels in animals that have been achieved via oral dosing. All the ingredients are commonly found in the food chain and are legal dietary supplement and food additive ingredients.

The other ingredients in Longvida Curcumin are a fatty acid & lecithin. Why are there two other ingredients in it? They are needed for optimum absorption.

What is the cost of Longvida Curcumin & where can it be ordered?

Because Longvida Curcumin is so new and not readily available through other companies yet, the pricing is only introductory pricing, so will be changing once it is widely available.

Longvida can be ordered by contacting Blake Ebersole at:

Blake Ebersole
1250 E. Conner Street
Noblesville, IN 46060 USA
+1.317.776.3600
bebersole@vs-corp.com

www.longvida.com
*Note: Longvida's website doesn't have much information on it yet, but it should be up shortly!

Is there any research about Longvida?

Yes, there is. I asked Blake Ebersole this question back when I was first looking into this in May '09. He sent me the powerpoint that was given at Neuroscience in November and also gave me another pdf from the UCLA Alzheimer's researcher who I have been in contact with (Sally Frautschy). I haven't looked at what he sent yet, but I will be going through it.

Because the data regarding this formula has not been published yet, I cannot post or give any of the above info that he sent me out. UCLA is in the process of putting the manuscript together and the journals won't publish data that has been made public elsewhere. But, you are welcome to email Blake and he should be able to pass on the research that he has.

I also have several studies that show all the benefits of Curcumin. I will try to post those up at another time.

What is the dosing?

The dosing for Longvida Curcumin is not a clear issue, because it is so new and has such limited use in people. I asked about how the dosages some of the other children who are on this are taking and this is what I was able to find out: a 3 yr old taking 6000mgs/day, 4 yr old twins - 2-4g [2000-4000mgs]/day, two teenagers (1000, 4000 & 6000mgs per day),

I also emailed Chris Hempel (mom of twin girls with Niemann Pick Type C Disease who we originally found out about Longvida from) and asked her a few questions regarding the dosages her daughters take and all. She gives them 6 capsules a day (3000mgs) each and they are currently 5 years old.

We give my brother 2000mgs/day. Initially we started at 500mgs/day for a week, then increased to 1000mgs/day and stayed at that for 7 weeks. We then increased to 1500mgs/day for a week and finally went to our goal of 2000mgs/day. Whenever you start something new, you want to start slow and increase it slowly so that it doesn't get overwhelming.

Several other parents of children with DS are using 1000mgs, 1500mgs, and even 2000mgs. Dr. Leichtman has recently started using this with his patients and he is using the dosage of 1000mgs/day for the time being.

How many people are using this?

To my knowledge, there are around 100 families/individuals using this with their child/children with Down syndrome. There are probably others who are using this with their kids/adults with DS that I am not aware of. If you're using this with your kid, would you mind sending me an email or leaving a comment here? That would be great, since all the more information we have about this the better, since it is all SO new.

Information from Sally Frautschy, professor of Neurology from UCLA (& she also helped develop Longvida):

I emailed her the log of what we have seen with Osiyyah, as I have been in contact with her since before we started Longvida. She was glad to know that we have seen changes and she also said she was surprised that we had seen all those improvements at such a low dose. I was surprised as well, as I really didn't expect to see any changes. But, what we saw (& see) is so amazing, it has to be from the Longvida.

She said that there is approximately 250mgs of Curcumin per 1000mgs. The other ingredients in Longvida are the fatty acid and lecithin. The fatty acid and such are necessary to help make the Curcumin bioavailable.

She also suggested giving the full Curcumin dose once a day, at night or before bedtime. This will help so that the Curcumin can do it's optimum, while the child is resting and it's body isn't "working" on anything else.

But, it's also because it will build up in fatty tissues, like the brain, so it doesn't need to be given more than once a day.

She also recommended giving a higher dose for 7 days once a month. I am considering doing that with Osiyyah. He will be taking 2000mgs/day and then for 7 days a month go up to 3000mgs/day.

Question 1 - "What do you think an ideal dose of Longvida would be for a child with DS (let's say age 4)?"

Sally said he best guess is that a baseline for a small child would be 250-500mg of Curcumin. Which would be 1250-2500mg of Longvida. We are at the 2000mg/day mark (after being at 1500 for the past week), and just may increase to 2500mg. We will see how things go.

Question 2 - "You suggested to increase the dose for 7 days a month. Is that to help it (Curcumin) build up in the fatty tissues?"

Sally said it is to help build up the dose in fatty tissues, but it is more specifically to clear amyloid from the brain. She said the dose for clearing amyloid appears to be higher.

Question 3 - "How much of a higher dose do you think would be necessary to clear the amyloid from the brain?"

Sally said in a study using mice getting levels of 0.5 uM in plasma is high enough to reduce the size of preexisting plaques in mice in 7 days. She said that seems to be a good target.. She would suggest giving a young child 1000mg Curcumin (which is equivalent to 5000mgs Longvida).

Yet more information from Prof. Frautschy regarding Longvida:

"CURCUMIN IS NOT LIKELY TO PROVE TO BE A BLOOD THINNER. The in vitro data arguing that curcumin can be a blood thinnner has not panned out in vivo. It had the opposite effects in our patient study. IN terms of the blood thinning properties of curcumin, there is no data in vivo to support that curcumin acts that way, nothing at all like aspirin. It is highly unlikely since it doesn't impact COX-1 directly. However, EPA from fish has "blood thinning" (as demonstrated by restriction of platelet aggregation) properties and DHA may impact that to a lesser extent. . I suggest that when on these supplements to get a clotting tests after 3 months on the supplement, in case there is an unforeseen interaction of DHA/EPA and curcumin. If there is easy bruising when one bumps themselves, make sure to go get clotting tested. My guess is that if one is on a high dose of DHA, then this would lower the dose of NSAID one needs (curcumin or whatever), but again , we don't know the perfect combination because NIH and pharma will not fund the proper number experiments needed to do to answer these important questions.

INTERACTIONS: Don't know about interactions of curcumin with ginkgo biloba."

Qadoshyah

UCLA's Curcumin

I recently was informed of a bioavailable Curcumin formula that UCLA has developed along with Verdue Sciences. The information is absolutely fascinating and it shows a lot of promise for individuals with DS.

This appears to cross the blood brain barrier, which is incredibly important. Curcumin shows a lot of promise in breaking up amyloid beta plaques & tangles, decreasing oxidative stress & apoptosis, and causing neurogenesis & synaptogenesis. It even has the possibility to increase glutathione levels. But, because it is typically not very absorable, it does not do many of these things when just plain ole Turmeric is given.

Verdue Sciences & UCLA have developed a formula called Longvida that is very optimized and they have seen the highest brain levels of Curcumin with this formula. Longvida is not out on the market yet, but the patent is being worked on. UCLA & Professor Frautschy are working on putting together the manuscript of their research for the journals.

We have decided to order some of this Curcumin and give it a try with my brother. It is very safe and has potentially amazing benefits.

I will try to post more information next week, Lord willing. In the mean time feel free to email me if you would like more information - qf @ gotdownsyndrome.net (remove spaces).

Qadoshyah

Speaking of Neurogenesis . . .

The Changing Minds protocol and all was being discussed on some of the DS lists I am. I know at least part of Dr. Cody's protocol is based on improving Neurogenesis in DS. As I was searching PubMed I happened to run across this abstract that was just published in December. It shows that there are reduced numbers of neurons in the brains of babies with DS (in the hippocampal region) and this is partly caused by an impairment of neurogenesis. Just thought it was interesting and maybe others may find it interesting.

Neurogenesis Impairment and Increased Cell Death Reduce Total Neuron Number in the Hippocampal Region of Fetuses with Down Syndrome.

Guidi S, Bonasoni P, Ceccarelli C, Santini D, Gualtieri F, Ciani E, Bartesaghi R.

Dipartimento di Fisiologia Umana e Generale, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.

We previously obtained evidence for reduced cell proliferation in the dentate gyrus (DG) of fetuses with Down syndrome (DS), suggesting that the hippocampal hypoplasia seen in adulthood may be caused by defective early neuron production. The goal of this study was to establish whether DS fetuses (17-21 weeks of gestation) exhibit reduction in total cell number in the DG, hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus (PHG). Volumes of the cellular layers and cell number were estimated with Cavalieri's principle and the optical fractionator method, respectively. We found that in DS fetuses all investigated structures had a reduced volume and cell number. Analysis of cell phenotype showed that DS fetuses had a higher percentage of cells with astrocytic phenotype but a smaller percentage of cells with neuronal phenotype. Immunohistochemistry for Ki-67, a marker of cycling cells, showed that DS fetuses had less proliferating cells in the germinal zones of the hippocampus and PHG. We additionally found that in the hippocampal region of DS fetuses there was a higher incidence of apoptotic cell death. Results show reduced neuron number in the DS hippocampal region and suggest that this defect is caused by disruption of neurogenesis and apoptosis, two fundamental processes underlying brain building.