Roger Spealman, PhD
Professor
The New England Primate Research CenterCNS disorders: addiction; Parkinson’s disease
Studies on the mechanisms and efficacy of psychoactive drugs
Commercial Opportunities
New treatments for anxiety and Parkinson's disease
The multifaceted approaches addressing pharmacotherapy for anxiety and stress disorders, drug addiction/drug relapse addiction, as well as their unique Parkinson’s non-human primate model, makes this laboratory an attractive partner for collaborative research efforts with industry on multiple fronts. The widespread use of anxiolytic and illicit drugs has created a substantial need for improved treatments, because of the drugs’ negative health consequences, adverse side effects, and pernicious toll on society. The lab’s comprehensive understanding of drug relapse, involving drugs such as cocaine, is crucial to the development of novel therapeutic interventions. By applying a combination of pharmacology and behavior modeling/conditioning (for example, systematic desensitization or extinction therapy), the lab is exploring novel drugs that target different CNS receptors/transporters (for example, GABAA receptor, monoamine transporter, glycine transporter) for developing appropriate methods for modeling stimuli and producing reliable “outputs” for assessing drug efficacy. This type of expertise is critical for effective evaluation of CNS drug action in the preclinical setting.
The collaborative efforts of the lab pertaining to new therapeutic studies for treating Parkinson’s disease highlights the value of the lab’s non-human primate Parkinson’s model for testing novel therapies that can stabilize and possibly stimulate the production of dopamine neurons in these patients.
Current Research Interests
Dr. Spealman's lab is involved in the:
- Study of relapse addiction to cocaine and opiates in advanced non-human primate behavioral models.
- Employment of the lab’s non-human primate model of Parkinson’s disease to identify new pharmacological interventions that improve upon L-dopa treatment, the current standard of care.
- Collaboration with the McLean Hospital as part of the neurobiological basis for addiction and of the NIH/NINDS Morris K. Udall Center for Excellence in Parkinson’s Research.
- Study of the relationship of GABAA receptor subtypes, monoamine and glycine transporters, to pharmacological aspects of benzodiazepines and illicit drugs in anxiety disorders and addiction.
- Investigation of the activity in non-human primates of anxiety drugs in clinical development, to predict efficacy and dosing in humans.
- Development of new behavioral models in drug discovery for proof of concept studies that predict efficacy in humans.
Research Expertise
Dr. Spealman’s laboratory has performed extensive studies into various CNS-related syndromes, employing non-human primates for modeling these disorders. The lab is noted for its numerous studies of drug addictive behaviors to cocaine, heroin, and sedatives, with a particular emphasis on the drug receptors that mediate the addiction and relapse. The primary objective of its investigations is to lay the foundation for development of novel pharamacotherapeutic candidates that successfully intervene with drug addiction and relapse of addiction. The lab has explored the action of agonists and antagonists of the metabotropic glutamate receptors, which are thought to play a key role in cocaine addiction. Moreover, the lab has also studied the inhibitors of the norepinephrine and dopamine transporters in the context of cocaine-induced “reinstatement” of cocaine addiction.
The lab also studies anxiety treatments, in terms of their mechanisms of action, their tendencies to be abused, and their adverse side-effects. Focusing on the GABAA receptor subtypes, the lab wants to uncover new treatments for anxiety.
Dr. Spealman’s lab has a longstanding collaboration with Dr. Ole Isacson of McLean Hospital, as part of the NIH/NINDS Morris K. Udall Center for Excellence in Parkinson’s Research. The lab employed a chemical treatment to elicit the loss of dopaminergic neruons, thus mimicking the human pathology in non-human primates. The usefulness of this non-human primate model has been demonstrated in brain imaging studies that revealed distinct neurochemical pathophysiology.