Distribution of metabolism of the potential anti-parkinson drug memantine in the human

J Neural Transm Suppl. 1980:(16):143-8. doi: 10.1007/978-3-7091-8582-7_15.

Abstract

GC-MS of tissue extracts obtained from a parkinsonian patient who died from secondary causes during memantine (1-amino-3.5-dimethyladamantane) treatment showed the drug to be largely unmetabolized. In the kidney and liver a second peak corresponded to less than 1% of the main temporal lobe, hypothalamus and pons. Thus treatment with 2 X 10 mg memantine/day reveals an accumulation of the drug in microM concentrations in the brain. This is probably high enough to explain the ameliorating effect of memantine treatment in patients suffering from Parkinson's disease.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Amantadine / analogs & derivatives*
  • Antiparkinson Agents / metabolism*
  • Antiparkinson Agents / therapeutic use
  • Brain Chemistry
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Memantine / metabolism*
  • Parkinson Disease / drug therapy
  • Tissue Distribution

Substances

  • Antiparkinson Agents
  • Amantadine
  • Memantine