Memantine hydrochloride

A comparison of the effects of ketamine and phencyclidine with other antagonists of the NMDA receptor in rodent assays of attention and working memory

“…transgenic mice engineered to overexpress amyloid proteins and lesioned rats (Creeley et al 2006;Minkeviciene et al 2004Minkeviciene et al , 2008More et al 2008;Yuede et al 2007). Also, memantine appears to provide some clinical benefit to Alzheimer's patients (Witt et al 2004). This apparent discrepancy between positive effects on cognition in deficit models and negative effects in normal animals may potentially be a consequence of differences in glutamatergic state or tone between animals (Parsons et al 2007), highlighting the potential importance of evaluating putative pro-cognitive agents in conjunction with manipulations that impair cognition.…”

A within-subject cognitive battery in the rat: differential effects of NMDA receptor antagonists

“…Memantine and ketamine share many biochemical properties but have divergent therapeutic potential and clinical profile (Johnson and Kotermanski 2006). Memantine is licenced in humans for the treatment of moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease (Witt et al 2004). It is thought to confer therapeutic benefit without cognitive impairment as it demonstrates the requisite separation between pathological and physiological activation of NMDA receptors (Johnson and Kotermanski 2006).…”

Evidence for improved performance in cognitive tasks following selective NR2B NMDA receptor antagonist pre-treatment in the rat

“…Unfortunately, the clinical testing of NMDA antagonists has been hampered by the emergence of target-based CNS side effects at predicted therapeutic doses which has restricted their evaluation to date (Muir and Lees 1995). However, the non-competitive, relatively low-affinity NMDA channel blocker memantine (Namenda) has recently gained approval in the EU and US markets for the treatment of moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease (Witt et al 2004). This approval is based on improved outcome in patients diagnosed with moderate-severe AD receiving 20 mg daily memantine for 28 weeks (Reisberg et al 2004), in addition to a demonstration of an additive beneficial effect with the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor donepezil (Tariot et al 2004).…”