CX717

Random Samples, Science Magazine, Sept 2, 2005

Researchers have found that a drug that enhances mental alertness may also hold promise for helping shift workers and others battle sleepiness.

The drug, CX717, is an ampakine, one of a class of synthetic compounds that amplify the signal of glutamate, a neurotransmitter important for learning and memory. Sam Deadwyler, a neuroscientist at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, wondered if ampakines could help in his search for strategies to prevent sleep deprivation in pilots. He and his colleagues found that when given the drug, monkeys kept awake for 30 to 36 hours outdid their well-rested, drug-free counterparts in cognitive tests. And brain scans showed that unlike other stimulants, the drug worked selectively, increasing activity only in the areas activated during the mental tasks, the researchers reported 22 August in PLoS Biology.

CX717 may have similar effects in humans. The manufacturer, Cortex Pharmaceuticals in Irvine, California, says in a small pilot study the drug improved mental function in young men kept awake for 27 hours. The Defense Department is now starting a trial to test the drug with shift workers.

"This could have very large social and economic consequences," says ampakine inventor Gary Lynch of the University of California, Irvine. He says a similar drug, Modafinil, affects different brain systems--those regulating sleep--so "the [two] drugs will probably find quite different uses."