Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Review Article | OPEN ACCESS

Development of memantine as a drug for Alzheimer’s disease: A review of preclinical and clinical studies

Yusuf S Althobaiti

Taif University, College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Taif, Saudi Arabia, Taif University, Addiction and Neuroscience Research Unit, Taif, Saudi Arabia;

For correspondence:- Email: ys.althobaiti@tu.edu.sa Tel:+966545736200

Accepted: 20 June 2020 Published: 31 July 2020

Citation: Althobaiti YS. Development of memantine as a drug for Alzheimer’s disease: A review of preclinical and clinical studies. Trop J Pharm Res 2020; 19(7):1535-1540 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v19i7.28

© 2020 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Excitotoxicity contributes to neuronal cell death due to overstimulation of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors by glutamate, which plays a significant role in the development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative disorders. Studies have been conducted to identify a well-tolerated and selective NMDA receptor blocker in an effort to alleviate neurodegeneration. Memantine has been found to induce a distinct low-affinity NMDA receptor blockade in both preclinical and clinical studies Therefore, FDA approved this drug as a well-tolerated noncompetitive NMDA receptor blocker for treating moderate to severe cases of AD. Further, memantine showed neuroprotective effects in preclinical studies by selectively blocking excessive NMDA receptor activation. Altogether, this novel drug is well-tolerated and effective for treating moderate to severe AD in various clinical studies. This paper is a review of preclinical and clinical studies on the drug development process of memantine.

Keywords: Memantine, Excitotoxicity, N-methyl-D-aspartate, Glutamate, Alzheimer’s disease, neurodegeneration