Pilot drug 'could boost memory'
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LONDON, England -- A memory-boosting pill could be available in the near future following impressive early trial results.
The drug, known as CX717, belongs to a class of compounds called ampakines that increase the brain's computing power.
In a pilot trial conducted in the UK, it significantly improved wakefulness and mental ability in sleep-deprived volunteers, the UK's Press Association reported.
Monkeys given the drug also showed a big improvement in a range of cognitive tests.
The drug will have to undergo further clinical trials before going on sale.
But Cortex, the Californian company that owns it, is considering CX717 as a possible treatment for narcolepsy, jet lag, attention deficit hyperactivity and Alzheimer's disease.
CX717 is also likely to find a market among users of pick-me-up "lifestyle" drugs.
One, Provigil, has already shown there is a huge market for drugs that can improve mental performance.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved it for treating narcolepsy, sleep apnoea -- disrupting breathing during sleep -- and sleepiness caused by shiftwork.
However it is widely taken "off-label" by healthy people to stay awake and alert.
Sales of the drug have more than doubled since 2002 and continue to soar.
Advocates of these chemical aids see them as no different from electronic helpers such as palmtop organizers.
Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia told the PA: "Stimulating your brain with a reminder on a BlackBerry doesn't seem that different to me from stimulating your brain with a drug."
Ampakines work by boosting the activity of glutamate, a nerve message chemical that makes it easier to learn and encode memory.
They change the rules about what it takes to create a memory, and how strong those memories can be.
Gary Lynch, from the University of California at Irvine, a member of the team that developed the drugs, said: "We all have the same computer, but we're running with different voltage levels. Ampakines up that 'voltage.'"
CX717 was tested by a team of researchers led by Julia Boyle at the University of Surrey in Guildford.
They gave one of three doses of the drug, or an inactive placebo, to a group of 16 healthy males aged 18 to 45.
In repeated trials, measurements were taken of the men's performance on different doses.
Volunteers started with a full night's sleep and the following morning and evening were given a battery of tests assessing memory, attention, alertness, reaction time and problem solving.
Then at 11pm, they took the pills and stayed up through the night. At midnight, 1am, 3am, 5am and 9am, they were re-tested on some of the tasks.
At 4am the volunteers were tucked into a bed in a darkened room and told to stay awake for 15 minutes.
Even the lowest dose of CX717 significantly improved the sleep-deprived volunteers' wakefulness and mental performance, New Scientist magazine reported.
A summary of the results was presented by Roger Stoll, CEO of Cortex, at an investors' conference earlier this month.
Details were scant, but he said that on a test of sustained attention, the drug took effect within an hour.
In the dark room most volunteers taking the placebo dozed off within about three minutes, while some ampakine users stayed awake for whole test.
Participants suffered none of the "jitteriness" that accompanies caffeine or amphetamines.
Impressive results also emerged from research on rhesus macaque monkeys carried out for the U.S. military at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
The Wake Forest researchers found that sleep-deprived monkeys on CX717 produced better reaction time and accuracy scores than when they were well rested. Non-sleep-deprived monkeys given the drug did better still.
