Ampakine

Ampakines are those types of drugs which would modulate the neurotransmitters in our brains. These neurotransmitters would later bind to the proteins. Glutamate is one of these types of neurotransmitter. In various diseases like the schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders, we can implicate the glutamates. But a much reduced level of glutamate-mediated excitatory stimulation is used. These Ampakines are also able to improve the attention span and the individual’s alertness. Ampakines can also facilitate the learning and memory. To use Ampakines in military effectiveness, it was investigated by DARPA. From this neurotransmitter, Glutamate they have been developed the name Ampakines.
As discussed earlier, these Ampakines react with glutamatergic AMPA receptor more strongly. Thus these drugs were given the name Ampakines. The Ampakines are influenced from the receptors. Ampakines are used to improve the functioning of the AMPA receptor. The Ampakines, when used as drugs are needed in producing cognitive benefits. This is the most promising advantage of using Ampakines. Many diseases have proven the uses of Ampakines. These diseases include sleep deprivation aid, memory enhancement, Alzheimers treatment and stroke therapy. Ampakines also changes encoding of the information and organization in the brain. In fact Ampakines has been mainly used for the treatment of the disease called Rett syndrome.

Examples of Ampakine and its structure

Till now there have been developed four structural classes of Ampakine drugs. Let us discuss some of them here:

·      The pyrrolidine derivative racetam drugs. Eg: piracetam and aniracetam.

·      The CX- series of drugs. They are used to encompass a range of benzoylpiperidine and benzoylpyrrolidine structures

·      Benzothiazide derivatives. Eg: cyclothiazide and IDRA-21

·      Biarylpropylsulfonamides Eg: LY-392,098, LY-404,187, LY-451,646 and LY-503,430

Various researches held at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) has proven that Ampakines would increase the production of neurotrophic factors. These important  neurotrophic factors  are Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) and Neuronal Growth Factor (NGF). These neurotrophic factors  are involved in important parts of the brain memory. Various important experiments were done on slices of brain tissue of the aged rats and mice. Then BDNF expression which increased in both the species were observed. The research and experiments were sponsored and organized in part by Cortex. When the ageing process starts, the production of neurotrophins decreases. It would be particularly decrease BDNF which effects the less healthy neurons that are smaller than young nerve cells.

There are also a number of experiments demonstrated in which infusion of neurotrophins were performed. This was done to restore the function and size of aged neurons. From the researches done, Vincent F. Simmon being the  Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Cortex noted some very important and valuable points. He said that the most important derivation from the research study is that it mentions that Ampakines can be made to the pill form. This form can increase the production to large extent. Ampakines avoids problems aberrant nerve cell growth and connections which are the results of the direct application of neurotrophic factors, which may lead to.

Knowing more about Ampakines, these are meant to improve the response of synapses. Ampakines with impairment of cognition improves cognition in any disease.  Ampakines are also considered as the drugs used to improve memory. From the study of ampakines in 1991, researcher Gary Lynch of the University of California-Irvine stated that they increase activities in the brain's cortex. An Ampakine drug called the Ampalex was developed by Lynch and Gary Rogers. Researchers proved that Ampalex scored 50% on memory tests. Ampalex was tested on people in Germany and Sweden. Usage of Ampalex increased the levels of a particular neurotransmitter in the brain