Gavestinel (GV-150,526) was an investigational drug developed by

GlaxoSmithKline GSK plc, formerly GlaxoSmithKline plc, is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with global headquarters in London, England. Established in 2000 by a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. GSK is the ten ...

for acute

intracerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into Intraparenchymal hemorrhage, the tissues of the brain, into its Intraventricular hemor ...

, which in 2001 failed to show an effect in what was at the time, the largest clinical trial in

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

that had been conducted. Gavestinel is an

NMDA antagonist NMDA receptor antagonists are a class of drugs that work to antagonize, or inhibit the action of, the ''N''-Methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR). They are commonly used as anesthetics for animals and humans; the state of anesthesia they induce ...

, binding selectively to the

glycine Glycine (symbol Gly or G; ) is an amino acid that has a single hydrogen atom as its side chain. It is the simplest stable amino acid (carbamic acid is unstable), with the chemical formula NH2‐ CH2‐ COOH. Glycine is one of the proteinogeni ...

site on the NMDA receptor complex, rather than the

glutamate Glutamic acid (symbol Glu or E; the ionic form is known as glutamate) is an α-amino acid that is used by almost all living beings in the biosynthesis of proteins. It is a non-essential nutrient for humans, meaning that the human body can syn ...

site many NMDA antagonists bind to.

Pharmacology and toxicology

''N''-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors are amino acid receptors, overstimulation to which lead to increased intracellular Ca²⁺ level, and become deleterious to neural cell. In ischaemic or hypoxic conditions such as stroke, the concentration of glutamate in synaptic clefts is increased, and continuously stimulates NMDA receptors. Gavestinel was synthesized by substituting indole-2-carboxylate at the C-3 position with an unsaturated lateral side chain. It binds to NMDA receptor on the glycine site with high affinity, selectivity and a broad time window efficacy, thus gains interests in testing its efficacy in treating stroke. In pre-clinical studies, gavestinel showed no significant side effects on memory, learning, and cardiovascular system, side effects that are very common in NMDA antagonists.

Clinical studies

In phase ΙΙ clinical studies to investigate safety, tolerability of gavestinel, no findings showed that it had significant side effects. The dose determined in phase ΙΙ trials was selected for further phase III trials. Later, however, in two large phase III trials, gavestinel showed no efficacy in treating ischemic stroke.

References

{{Ionotropic glutamate receptor modulators NMDA receptor antagonists