Ariadne Bio | Restoring Motivation in Aging

Many people with Parkinson's disease retain the physical ability to do the things they love. What they've lost is the drive. They stop initiating. They stop reaching for things. Not because of tremor or rigidity. Because the brain's motivation system is failing.

This is apathy. It affects hundreds of thousands of people with Parkinson's in the U.S., and millions more across age-related diseases like late-life depression and Alzheimer's. There are no approved treatments for any of them.

We are working to develop the first medicine designed to address it.

The Problem

The weight of invisible loss

A father who organized Thanksgiving every year now sits silently through it. Not because of pain. Not because of sadness. Because the part of his brain that initiates — that reaches toward the people he loves — is failing. This is not depression. This is apathy.

For Caregivers

Watching someone you love disengage from life, without being able to explain why
Managing care demands that intensify as the patient's ability to initiate fades
Navigating a healthcare system with no name for this, no test for it, and no treatment to offer

The cruelest feature of apathy: the person experiencing it rarely seeks help. The caregiver sees what's happening and has nowhere to turn.

Our Approach

Why existing treatments fail, and what AB-300 is designed to do differently

Wrong target

SSRIs flood the brain with serotonin broadly. They don't activate the receptor that controls motivation — and may worsen apathy through emotional blunting.

Right target, wrong profile

Psychedelic compounds hit the right receptor (5-HT_2A) but cause hallucinations and require supervised clinical settings. Not viable for elderly patients.

Right target, right profile

AB-300 is designed to activate 5-HT_2A without hallucinogenic effect, potentially making it an accessible and self-administered therapy for motivational deficits.

For a 78-year-old with Parkinson's disease who has stopped engaging with life, not because of tremor, but because the brain's motivation circuitry is failing, a supervised psychedelic session is not a realistic option. A medicine taken at home could be.

Ariadne Bio is working to harness this therapeutic potential to build medicines for patients that psychedelic therapy may never reach. Not another antidepressant, where dozens of alternatives already exist. For apathy, where there are none.

Status

Patented. Phase 1b trial initiation targeted for Q3 2026. Randomized, placebo-controlled, in Parkinson's disease patients with clinically significant apathy.

Leadership