Anavex Life Sciences Corp (AVXL)

[falconer66a]

Then, hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP).

Fragile X, Infantil Spasms, Angelman's....with a successful Rett Syndrome outcome these three orphan diseases will quickly follow....

Understandably, no attention has been directed yet at HSP or primary lateral sclerosis (PLS). These are related motor neuron diseases, for which blarcamesine most likely will be therapeutic.

Personally, I have one of the over 50 genotypes of HSP. The long motor neurons that control my adductor muscles in my legs (and a few others) have become hyperexcited with the full onset of HSP for me in my early sixties. I'm 73. Fortunately, I can still walk with the aid of a walker, and can safely drive a car. But HSP, as it often does, has created a neurogenic bladder. I had to have a suprapubic catheter surgically installed.

The problems are caused by a lack of gamma-aminobutyric acid, GABA, in the long motor nerves. Should my HSP progress to a debilitating state (so far, no indication that it will, symptoms are stable), an intrathecal baclofen infusion device can be surgically inserted into my spinal column, whereby baclofen, a neuroinhibitory drug turns down the hyperexcitability of the motor neurons lacking sufficient GABA.

An obscure study, I believe in France, was done with transgenic rats with HSP. They, too, lacked control of their spastic rear legs. Then, Anavex 2-73 was added to their drinking water and quite quickly they resumed normal gait. The drug, as in the case with the girls in the Rett trial, facilitated normal production of GABA in the affected nerves.

(If anyone has the paper describing this, please post. A year ago my computer hard drive failed. I was unable to retrieve the copied paper from my lost files. To date, I've been unable to find it on the Internet. )

In both HSP and PLS, declining, deficient levels of GABA cause motor nerves to continue to spastically excite the muscles they control. Blarcamesine will be a welcome therapeutic option. I'll be one of the first with HSP to participate in a clinical trial (I hope). Will hope and pray that in the clinical coin toss I get blarcamesine, not the placebo starch pill. After a week or two, I'll be able to tell. There can be no placebo effect to overcome a spasticity-generating GABA deficiency. I've spent a decade willing my nerves "to loosen up." Ha. No go. I await blarcamesine.