RespireRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OTC Markets: RSPI) (“RespireRx” or the “Company”), a leader in the discovery and development of innovative and revolutionary treatments to combat diseases caused by disruption of neuronal signaling, is pleased to announce the entering into a material transfer agreement with University College London (UCL) as part of a collaborative research effort involving Dr. Ian Coombs and Prof. Mark Farrant, founder members of the GRIA Scientific Advisory Board of the CureGRIN Foundation (“CureGRIN”) and from the UCL Department of Neuroscience, Physiology, and Pharmacology. The UCL group, which also includes Prof, Stuart Cull-Candy F.R.S., has been awarded funding from CureGRIN, and will be working with the RespireRx research team to study the possibility of using CX1739, RespireRx’s lead clinical AMPAkine, for the treatment of a major class of GRIA disorders.

GRIA Disorder refers to a family of rare genetic diseases caused by mutations in the AMPA glutamate receptor genes that cause either a loss or gain in the functioning of these receptors, which are the site of action of RespireRx’s AMPAkines and which play an important role in learning and memory as well as other critical biological functions (see https://curegrin.org/what-are-gri-disorders/ for a description of these disorders). Dr. Coombs’s work seeks to characterize the genetic variants underlying the diverse behavioral and cognitive symptoms in children with GRIA Disorder and use this knowledge to create a diagnostic method to determine on a molecular level which patients have a decline or gain in the functioning of these receptors and use this diagnostic to choose what drugs to use to restore normal function.

“It is very important to characterize the properties of AMPA receptor variants which underly the diverse symptoms displayed by children with GRIA Disorder in order to better determine which drugs could act as potential treatments. Evidence suggests that the majority of these disease-associated variants produce underactive AMPARs so I am very excited to be working with the AMPAkine CX1739, which boosts AMPA receptor function, to determine on a molecular level its potential as a precision therapy for children with GRIA Disorder, for whom no truly effective treatment presently exists,” said Dr. Coombs.

“It is the ultimate intention of this collaboration to test CX1739 in patients with specific variants that we demonstrate produce a decline in function of the AMPA receptor. Positive therapeutic effects with RespireRx’s AMPAkines already have been reported in animal mutations modelling related disorders such as Pompe that also suffer from declines in AMPA receptor functioning. AMPAkines may have the potential to treat a broad range of patients suffering from AMPA receptor dysfunction,” commented Dr. Arnold Lippa, RespireRx Executive Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, President and Chief Scientific Officer.

The RespireRx team that will collaborate with Dr. Coombs, Prof. Farrant and Prof. Cull-Candy includes Drs. Jeffrey M. Witkin and Rok Cerne, both of whom are RespireRx Research Fellows in addition to their academic affiliations at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Ascension St. Vincent Hospital and Indiana University/Purdue University, respectively. The team has extensive expertise and are well known for their work in drug discovery and development, including novel analgesic, anxiolytic, anti-epileptic and anti-depressant drugs.