CX717

Scientific American, November 29, 2006

The military effort includes investigation of another class of drugs, the ampakines, which show some promise in treating dementia and symptoms of schizophrenia by improving cognition when used with antipsychotic medication. Clinical trials have not found therapeutic value, but results from a company-sponsored study at Wake Forest University using an ampakine drug in sleep-deprived rhesus monkeys were encouraging. The monkeys' performance was reduced 15 to 25 percent when sleep-deprived, and reaction times doubled. But a single dose of Ampakine CX717 eliminated their performance deficit and sleep deprivation changes. An unpublished human trial sponsored by the company that makes CX717 reported that 16 men deprived of a night's sleep did better on memory and attention tests after taking the drug. The scientist who conducted the study said, "We didn't see any adverse events." From http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=31373133-E7F2-99DF-3B50B89EA1ADBBFB

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."