Pre-Clinical Drug Testing

MindGenix Inc. was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of Mindset BioPharmaceuticals (USA) Inc. The Company offers a high value, unique, proprietary new in vivo research tool to facilitate drug discovery in Alzheimer’s disease and other diseases characterized by cognitive and behavioral impairment, CNS inflammation and oxidative stress.

The core resource is a double transgenic mouse model, licensed to MindGenix, that develops both the brain pathology of Alzheimer’s disease and the clinically relevant cognitive-behavioral impairments, all commencing at 3 months of age  which is significantly earlier than other models. The model can be used to rapidly screen for a candidate drug’s ability to decrease pathological burden, especially amyloid toxin deposition. Importantly, a candidate drug’s ability to improve the cognitive-behavioral impairments (whether caused by Alzheimer’s or other neurological or psychiatric disorders) is readily evaluated in this model, through behavioral tests, specially validated by MindGenix.

Other Alzheimer’s disease models available, develop the pathology and behavioral impairment, at a significantly slower rate, making them useful only at about 12 months of age for accurate determinations about possible drug effects. Critically, our model makes it possible, to rapidly test a very broad spectrum of drug candidates and to optimize lead selection. This can save several years in the drug development process, making time to large markets significantly shorter. Our proprietary product and the related validated series of tests and services are increasingly being recognized as the “gold standard” for testing drug candidates for Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive disorders. 

MindGenix Inc. is the only company licensed to offer third-party testing services in the PS1/APP double transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. This model is generated by mating two single transgenic mice, each containing a different mutant gene, the PS1M146L and the APPK670N, M671L mutations that give rise to early onset of Alzheimer’s disease in affected individuals. Importantly, the Company’s unique licensing position enables it to offer its customers a turnkey, royalty-free and milestone payment free option. This is by far the most cost-effective way to test any compound that is predicted to affect the production, clearance or toxicity caused by the amyloid cascade (which is widely recognized as a focal point in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease), or other hallmarks of AD. The utility of this model in evaluating drugs has been greatly enhanced by MindGenix’s painstaking validation of numerous tests and paradigms with which multiple classes of drugs for Alzheimer’s disease can be tested. In addition, MindGenix is collaborating with leading experts to develop its PS1/APP mouse as the model of choice to test drugs that affect cognition, where these are needed to treat Alzheimer’s disease or any other causes of cognitive deficits.

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