Affiliations: [a] Neurogenetics Special Laboratory, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany | [b] Galantos Pharma GmbH, Nieder-Olm, Germany
Correspondence:
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Correspondence to: Dirk Montag, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Neurogenetics Special Laboratory, Brenneckestr. 6, D-39118 Magdeburg, Germany. Tel.: +49 391 626394241; Fax: +49 391 626394249; montag@LIN-magdeburg.de
Abstract: The plant alkaloid galantamine is an established symptomatic drug treatment for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), providing cognitive and global relief in human patients. However, as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, gastrointestinal side effects limit the dosage and duration of treatment. Memogain (Gln-1062), a pro-drug, liberates galantamine on cleavage by a carboxyesterase in the brain. The possibility to deliver Memogain intranasally may further circumvent side effects, allowing higher dosing compared to galantamine. In this study, the 5X Familial Alzheimer’s Disease (5XFAD) mouse model was used to investigate the effect of chronic Memogain treatment on behavior and amyloid-β (Aβ) plaque deposition in the brain. Chronic intranasal dosage of 6 mg/kg body weight twice daily was tolerated well, whereas the double dose caused body weight loss in males and was less effective in some behavioral tests. 8 weeks of chronic treatment resulted in improved performance in behavioral tests, such as open field and light-dark avoidance, and in fear conditioning already at mildly affected stages at the age of 18 weeks compared to untreated controls. Furthermore, after treatment a significantly lower plaque density in the brain, i.e., in the entorhinal cortex (reduction 20% females, 40% males) and the hippocampus (19% females, 31% males) at the age of 18 weeks was observed. These results show that nasal application of Memogain effectively delivers the drug to the brain with the potential to retard plaque deposition and improve behavioral symptoms in AD similar to the approved galantamine.
