Posted by mike99 on February 28, 2006, at 21:18:59
In reply to Re: provigil mechanism of action?, posted by SLS on February 25, 2006, at 6:50:48
> Hi.
>
> Provigil (modafinil) seems to possess at least two properties that can increase wakefulness and vigilence:
>
> 1. Glutamate release
> 2. Orexin (hypocretin) release
>
>>
> - ScottGlutamate toxicity is currently a hot topic in cognitive dysfunction (there are claims that excess glutamate may be neurotoxic and involved in disorders such as ADHD, Dementia, Alzheimer's...) In fact if I'm not mistaken there's a class of drugs in development called ampakines which antagonize the effects of glutamate. They're experimental for ADHD Dementia and many other cognitive disorders.
In fact, memantine/namenda is thought to possibly delay the progression or at least treat symptoms of moderate to severe alzheimers by blocking the actions of glutamate (by acting as an NMDA receptor antagonist).
Just wondering if neurotoxicity would be a potential side effect of provigil and if so whether this would be clinically relevant?
Please feel free to correct any errors of fact I may have made.
poster:mike99
thread:612884
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060227/msgs/614469.html