Galantamine-memantine combination effective in dementia: Translate to dementia praecox?

摘要

Cholinergic and glutamatergic systems, alpha-7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α-7nAChR) and N-methyl- D -aspartate (NMDA) receptor arestrongly implicated with cognitive impairments in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Donepezil, a frequently used drug in the treatment of AD, is only anacetylcholinesterase inhibitor (AChEI), whereas galantamine is an AChEI and a positive allosteric modulator of the α4β2 and α-7nAChR. Memantineis an NMDA receptor antagonist. Donepezil (Aricept), galantamine (Razadyne), memantine (Namenda), and donepezil-memantine combination(Namzaric) are US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)–approved medications for the treatment of AD. Several randomized controlled trials (RCTs)and meta-analyses have shown that the donepezil-memantine combination was better than either drug alone for cognition in AD. Based on these dataand the unique properties of galantamine, several studies were conducted evaluating the efficacy of galantamine-memantine combination in AD.