Sun. Oct 13, 2019 8:40 AM - 10:20 AM Room 1 (Main Hall)

Organizer / Chair: Tetsurou KIKUCHI (New Drug Research Division, Pharmaceutical Business Division, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.), Co-chair: George KOOB (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, USA)

Sixty years have passed since the antipsychotic effects of chlorpromazine and the antidepressant effects of imipramine were discovered in the 1950s. Since then, many antipsychotics and antidepressants have been studied and developed, based on the excessive dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia and monoamine hypothesis of depression. Regarding antipsychotic drugs, several studies have clarified that the action mechanism of typical antipsychotic drugs was dopamine D2 receptor antagonist. Subsequently, other agents were also developed, such as serotonin-dopamine antagonist (SDA) and dopamine D2 receptor partial agonist. These drugs succeeded in alleviating extrapyramidal symptoms and in overcoming excessive sedative actions and hyperprolactinemia among issues caused by the use of typical antipsychotic drugs. However, their clinical effects are insufficient, and the development of excellent antipsychotic drugs that can effectively alleviate the negative symptoms and cognitive dysfunctions are awaited. Regarding antidepressants, some studies have elucidated that the action mechanisms of imipramine are serotonin and noradrenalin reuptake inhibition. With imipramine as a starter, tricyclic and tetracyclic antidepressants were developed. After these, in the pursuit of drugs that ensure the efficacy of tricyclic antidepressants and eliminate adverse events, drugs were developed such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), which selectively inhibits the reuptake of serotonin, and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI). In addition, tetracyclic antidepressants developments led to noradrenergic and specific serotonergic antidepressant (NaSSA), which does not inhibit monoamine reuptake. However, antidepressants with a fast onset of effect and a more powerful clinical effect remain awaited. Looking at the treatment of neurological diseases, particularly of Alzheimer-type dementia, successful developments were made in drugs that improve symptoms, such as cholinesterase inhibitor and NMDA receptor antagonist. However, all the other developments made in many chemical compounds with other action mechanisms have resulted in failure in clinical trials.
Under these circumstances, we planned this symposium to provide information about some noteworthy new drugs for treating psychiatric and neurological diseases that are based on new action mechanisms. We hope that this project will help global researchers to gain insights into drug development. We also strongly hope that these drugs with new action mechanisms will be approved and marketed to provide new therapeutic values for patients. We expect that the understanding of the basic pathology of relevant neuropsychiatric diseases can be deepened through research on the relationship between “new action mechanism” and “observed clinical effect” in the future.

*Presentations of this symposium are also presented as posters.
Poster No.: DDR-1 ~ DDR-11
Poster display: October 11 (Fri) – 13 (Sun)
Poster discussion: October 13 (Sun) 16:40 – 18:10
Venue: Poster Hall (Fukuoka International Congress Center, 2F, Multi-purpose Hall).