Latrepirdine, a potential novel treatment for Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's chorea.

Latrepirdine (Dimebon) is a small-molecule compound under development by Medivation Inc and Pfizer Inc for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's chorea. Originally developed and marketed as an antihistamine in Russia, latrepirdine has since demonstrated potential for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Early research suggested that the mechanism of action was centered on AChE inhibition and NMDA antagonism. More recent research questions these early findings, and other mechanisms of action have been proposed and investigated. In phase II clinical trials, latrepirdine demonstrated clinically relevant improvements in patients with Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's chorea. At the time of publication, phase III clinical trials had been initiated. Given the robustness of the phase II clinical data, latrepirdine has a high likelihood of success in phase III trials and in subsequently being granted regulatory approval.