Karolinska Development’s portfolio company Umecrine Cognition presents promising preclinical Parkinson data at AD/PD 2025
April 1, 2025. Karolinska Development AB (Nasdaq Stockholm: KDEV) today announces that its portfolio company Umecrine Cognition presents recent preclinical data showing that golexanolone reverses dopamine loss and sustains improvements of Parkinsonian symptoms at the 19th International Conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases (AD/PD) 2025, in Vienna, Austria, April 1–5th.
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease hallmarked by motor symptoms and disrupted cognitive functions as well as mental health. The disorder is caused by the loss of nerve cells in the brain that produce the signaling substance dopamine, which leads to various symptoms reducing the patient’s well-being and quality of life.
Umecrine Cognition is developing a new class of drugs to alleviate cognitive symptoms. The company’s drug candidate golexanolone has recently shown to improve mechanisms in the midbrain important for brain functions such as motor and cognitive behaviors that leads to dopamine loss and Parkinsonian deficits in a preclinical study in a well-established laboratory model of Parkinson’s disease.
The results from the study increase the understanding of golexanolone’s mechanism of action and support further development of the drug candidate as a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease.
An abstract summarizing the company’s study has been accepted for presentation at the on-site paper poster session “Alpha-Synucleinopathies, Therapeutic Targets, Mechanisms for Treatment” on Friday, April 4th, as well as at the oral ePoster presentation, a virtual format for digital meeting attendees.
Karolinska Development’s ownership in Umecrine Cognition amounts to 73%.