Medical advances are sometimes large and momentous, sometimes relatively small but still significant. It would seem that the development offered up Thursday by San Francisco-based VistaGen Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VTGN) would be of the latter category.
VTGN, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing new generation medicines for central nervous system (CNS) diseases and disorders with high unmet need, announced data indicating that its orally available CNS drug candidate, AV-101, promotes what is called hippocampal neurogenesis, by which new neurons are formed in a region of the brain that involves high-level functions such as emotions, memory, and spatial navigation and exploration
According to VistaGen CEO Shawn Singh, "The development of new neurons is a vital part of our mental growth during adulthood, and the exciting results of these non-clinical studies highlight AV-101’s potential to promote adult hippocampal neurogenesis."
Singh continued, "We believe these results are potentially far-reaching, especially given that enhanced hippocampal cell proliferation provides protection against stress-related psychiatric disorders, including depression."
The development also stimulated trading in the stock, VTGN gaining 14 cents Wednesday afternoon, or 9.2%, to head into the final hour of trade at $1.66, on volume of 650,000 shares.
