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  • Hot Drugs 2004
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Neurological disorders

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 3, pages S38–S40 (2004)Cite this article

Brand name: Namenda Companies: Forest/Merz Approved: 16 October 2003 Condition treated: Alzheimer's disease Action: N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist CAS number: 41100-52-1

Alzheimer's disease (AD), which affects ∼15 million people worldwide, is a neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by progressive loss of memory and cognitive function1. At present, there are no drugs approved that target the underlying mechanisms of disease progression. The main pharmacotherapies for AD are acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs), which counteract the characteristic deficit in cholinergic neurotransmission in AD by reducing AChE-mediated degradation of acetylcholine1. These drugs are approved for the treatment of mild to moderate AD, but are not yet approved for use in more advanced disease.

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Figure 1: NMDA receptor antagonism.
Figure 2: Market for drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease.

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Additional information

Authorship This section was authored by Andrea Witt, Nancy Macdonald and Peter Kirkpatrick, and includes material first published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. Andrea Witt and Nancy Macdonald are at Decision Resources Inc., 260 Charles Street, Waltham, Massachusetts 02453, USA. Peter Kirkpatrick is at Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.

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Neurological disorders. Nat Rev Drug Discov 3 (Suppl 7), S38–S40 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd1411

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