US Patent Issued to Virginia Commonwealth University on June 2 for "Bivalent ligands to understand dimerization of the mu opioid receptor and the chemokine receptor CCR5 in neurological disorders" (Virginia Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 2 -- United States Patent no. 12,643,909, issued on June 2, was assigned to Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, Va.).

"Bivalent ligands to understand dimerization of the mu opioid receptor and the chemokine receptor CCR5 in neurological disorders" was invented by Yan Zhang (Glen Allen, Va.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Bivalent ligands which bind to MOR-CCR5 heterodimers are provided. The bivalent ligands comprise two discrete pharmacophores, naltrexone and maraviroc, linked by a spacer and bind to MOR-CCR5 heterodimers, e.g. at the surface of a cell. The bivalent ligands are useful in assays to detect MOR-CCR5 heterodimers, as therapeutic agents to prevent and/...