The challenge of traditional neuropharmacology

Today’s neuroactive medicines often lack precision, as they primarily target receptors distributed ubiquitously throughout the nervous system. By contrast, the diseases these drugs treat typically originate in specific cell types or restricted brain regions. The broad activity of existing medicines leads to reduced efficacy, harmful side effects, suboptimal dosing, medication noncompliance, and drug discontinuation.

By leveraging a unique class of proteins, we can precisely target cell types and neurocircuits where our medicines are needed: on the source of the neurophysiological abnormality. With this approach, we substantially enhance efficacy and limit side effects.

Our solution: Precision through receptor-associated proteins

Receptors don’t act alone. Instead, communities of associated proteins modulate receptor expression and function. These receptor-associated proteins, (RAPs), can be harnessed to precisely steer neuromedicines to disease-driving neuronal tissues.

Whereas the neurotransmitter receptors themselves are widespead, RAPs often function in discrete and specific cell types or brain regions. By embedding region-specific RAPs into our drug discovery and development processes, we create novel drugs that act only on disease-relevant areas where those RAPs are present, freeing patients of their symptoms and the side effects of their treatment regimen.

Enabling drug discovery and development

Over the past decade, our discovery platform has been built, refined, and tested to identify drugs with remarkable selectivity that enhance patient benefit. Our first program, designed to treat drug-resistant seizure disorders, is in clinical development.

Rapport’s platform integrates cutting-edge genetics with functional proteomics to discover RAPs that are regionally localized and involved in disease-related signaling. We then leverage these RAPs to develop precision medicines that modulate neurotransmitter receptors with greater efficacy and reduced side effects.