A Phase 2a Study to Evaluate the Kappa Opioid Receptor As a Target for the Treatment of Mood and Anxiety Spectrum Disorders by Evaluation of Whether CERC-501 Engages Key Neural Circuitry Related to the Hedonic Response (FASTMAS_Kor2)

NCT02218736 Phase 2 COMPLETED Results posted

The available treatment for patients with mood and anxiety disorders have significant limitations (Rush, 2007; Denys and de Geus, 2005). There is a need to develop new treatments for people with these disorders. Many research studies carried out in animals and a few preliminary studies carried out in humans suggest that medications which block kappa opioid receptors (KOR) have potential for being effective new treatments for patients with mood and anxiety spectrum disorders. These medications have shown particular promise for improving one important type of difficulty experienced by many patients who suffer from mood and anxiety spectrum disorders referred to as anhedonia, which is an impairment in reward-related function. In this study we will test the hypothesis that KOR antagonism is a promising means of improving anhedonia in patients with mood and anxiety spectrum disorders. We will do so by evaluating whether we can establish Proof of Concept (POC) that a relatively selective KOR antagonist, CERC-501 (formerly known as LY2456302), engages neural circuits involved in mediating reward-related function in patients with mood and anxiety spectrum disorders with anhedonia. We are attempting to establish POC in this study in order to determine whether there is a sufficient basis for pursuing future work evaluating whether KOR antagonism has therapeutic effects on clinical and behavioral measures of reward-related functioning.

Details

Lead sponsor	Duke University
Phase	Phase 2
Status	COMPLETED
Enrolment	163
Start date	2015-06
Completion	2017-12-01

Conditions

• ANXIETY DISORDERS (or Anxiety and Phobic Neuroses)

Interventions

• CERC-501
• placebo

Primary outcomes

• Change in Ventral Striatal Activation Occurring in Anticipation of Reward During the Monetary Incentive Delay Task Measured by fMRI — baseline, Week 8
  Establish POC (Proof of Concept) for KOR (Kappa Opioid Receptor) antagonism by evaluating the impact of CERC-501 relative to Placebo on reward-related neural circuitry in terms of ventral striatal activation during anticipation of reward during the Monetary Incentive Delay Task. Evaluation by fMRI (Functional magnetic resonance imaging). The BOLD (Blood Oxygen Level-Dependent) score on the Z-scale represents how far the actual measured intensity is from the expected in the template. A score of 0 would correspond to the mean/median, a score of 1.65 would represent the 90-percentile, -1.65 the 10-percentile, and so on, according to a standard normal distribution.

Countries

United States