Drug Development

QT interval prolongation is a known adverse event of many psychotropic medications. ACP-204, a potent and selective inverse agonist/antagonist of serotonin 2A (5-HT_2A), was developed for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease psychosis to have an improved pharmacological profile and lower risk of QT prolongation. This study evaluates the effect of ACP-204 on corrected QT (QTc) intervals and the relationship between plasma drug concentrations and time-matched change in QTc following single doses in healthy volunteers.

QTc intervals were analyzed from randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, Phase 1 data in which healthy adult participants were randomized to single ascending oral doses of ACP-204 (10 to 180 mg) or placebo. Data from 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) assessments at screening, baseline, and up to 48 hours postdose were used to evaluate changes from baseline in Friderica-corrected QT (ΔQTcF) intervals. Concentration-effect modeling was used to analyze the relationship between plasma drug concentrations and time-matched changes in QTcF. QTc interval assessments were summarized descriptively and categorically.

This analysis included 57 participants. A ΔQTcF >30 ms and ≤60 ms was observed in 1 participant in each of the 60, 130, and 180 mg cohorts; 1 participant in the 40 mg cohort had a ΔQTcF >60 ms. The QTcF interval did not exceed 450 ms at any time point for any participant, and no dose-response pattern was observed (Figure 1). The Fridericia heart rate correction met adequacy criterion; 89.5% of participants had QTcF versus RR interval slopes <|0.045|, exceeding the 50% requirement (Figure 2). Changes observed using concentration-effect modeling were small and benign (Figure 3A-B). After subtraction of placebo ΔQTcF, the upper limit of the confidence band remained below 10 ms throughout to the maximum observed concentration of ∼395 ng/mL. Model-predicted average placebo-adjusted ΔQTcF (ΔΔQTcF) at mean C_max levels for all dose cohorts ranged from 3.17 ms (10 mg) to 0.47 ms (180 mg). The upper limit of the 2-sided 90% CI for ΔΔQTcF at 180 mg was 6.51 ms.

No meaningful increases in QTcF were observed in healthy participants after single-dose administration of ACP-204 (10-180 mg); specifically, there was no QTcF prolongation up to 180 mg.