Oxiracetam is a more potent derivative of the nootropic drug piracetam. They were developed in 1974 by the Italian company ICF and went on sale in 1987. Oxiracetam is a Piracetam derivative and excites the central nervous system, promotes brain metabolism, significantly increases and promotes memory retention, and effectively treats senile memory and mental decline. It is used to treat brain dysfunction psychiatric syndrome and mental disorders. It can improve the memory and learning abilities of patients with senile dementia or memory disorders. It is suitable for treating neural dysfunction, memory disorder and intelligence disorders caused by brain damage. It can also be used as a recovery treatment for neurosis, brain trauma, encephalitis, and other brain diseases. Oxiracetam’s greatest advantage is that it is very soluble in water, making it suitable for injection. Research shows that Oxiracetam has higher pharmacological activity and significant curative effects compared to Piracetam.
Oxiracetam’s mechanisms of action are similar to those of Piracetam. It promotes the binding of phosphorylcholine and phosphoethanolamine, increases the ratio of ATP/ADP in the brain, and increases the binding of protein with nucleic acids in the brain, thus improving the memory and learning ability of patients with senile dementia and memory disorder.
After intake, most of the drug will not accumulate in the body and will be excreted through urine in its original form. It is well-absorbed and well-tolerated.
Animal trials showed that in all types of behavioral experiments, Oxiracetam can improve memory retention and learning ability, reduce brain shocks’ damage on memory, and prevent the learning abilities of rats suffering from spontaneous hypertensive cerebrovascular injury from decreasing. It can also increase acetylcholine circulation in rats’ skin and hippocampus, thus increasing affinity for choline uptake.
Oxiracetam is a structural analogue of piracetam. This compound has enhancing effects on vigilance and memory. In comparison with piracetam, oxiracetam exhibits greater improvement in memory (Itil et al., 1986) and has been used extensively for the treatment of dementia, including AD, VaD, MID (Baumel et al., 1989; Dysken et al., 1989), and mixed forms. Green et al. (1992) failed to demonstrate a difference from placebo in AD patients. In contrast, Maina et al. (1989) studied 289 patients with MID in a double-blind placebo-controlled trial and after 12 weeks of treatment found that oxiracetam reduced behavioural symptoms.
Oxiracetam is a 4-hydroxy analog of piracetam with psychostimulant activity, reportedly useful in relieving the symptoms of cerebral insufficiency in the elderly.
ChEBI: Oxiracetam is an organooxygen compound and an organonitrogen compound. It is functionally related to an alpha-amino acid.
Nootropic agent, improves learning and memory, and prevents impairment of cognitive functions. Its mechanism of action in not yet known, but it is suggested to modulate glutamatergic and cholinergic neurotransmission. Protein kinase C may be involved.
This nootropic (Alzheimer) drug is purified by recrystallisation from MeOH or aqueous Me2CO and dried in vacuo. [NMR, IR: Pifferi & Pinza Farmaco Ed Sci 32 602 1977, Banfi et al. Farmaco Ed Sci 39 16 1984, Gouilaev & Senning Brain Research Rev 19 180 1994.]
