CX516 did not significantly improve cognitive functioning or symptom ratings when added to clozapine, olanzapine, or risperidone. This study, which had very low attrition in both treatment groups, was powered to detect a treatment effect of medium size (
d=0.60). Although the potential for a positive effect on cognition cannot be ruled out, we can conclude, based on 95% confidence intervals (−0.4–0.4) that CX516 does not produce the hypothesized effect of medium or greater magnitude under the clinical conditions that we examined. This negative finding is in contrast to the moderate-to-large effects on attention and memory observed in a prior pilot trial of CX516 in 19 patients with schizophrenia (
Goff et al, 2001). Because the doses of CX516 that were administered and the patient samples were similar in the two studies, the difference in results most likely reflects a failure of a small sample to predict outcomes for larger trials (
Kraemer et al, 2006).
It is possible that the CX516 dose of 900 mg three times daily used in this study was suboptimal. CX516 is a relatively low-potency agent with a rather short half-life of approximately 20 min in rats (
Hampson et al, 1998) and 1 h in humans. In dose-finding trials in rats, CX516 maximally facilitated fear conditioning at a dose of 12.5 mg/kg (
Rogan et al, 1997) and improved performance in the radial maze task at a dose of 15 mg/kg (
Granger et al, 1993). Studies that demonstrated improvement of olfactory learning (
Larson et al, 1995) and DNMS performance (
Hampson et al, 1998) used CX516 doses of 30 and 35 mg/kg, respectively. Given the reduced clearance of CX516 in humans, lower doses (based on body weight) were selected for clinical trials. In a study of 24 healthy male medical students, a single 300 mg dose of CX516 significantly improved measures of visual, olfactory, and visuospatial memory (
Ingvar et al, 1997). Delayed recall of nonsense syllables improved with a single CX516 dose of 900 mg in elderly subjects (
Lynch et al, 1997) and improved in younger subjects with CX516 single doses ranging from 600–1200 mg (
Lynch et al, 1996). These results indicated that, with single dose administration, CX516 should be effective in a range from 300–1200 mg.
The dose of 900 mg (or approximately 12 mg/kg) administered three times daily was chosen for this trial based on preliminary evidence from a pilot trial of 19 clozapine-treated schizophrenia patients, suggesting efficacy for cognitive measures and no discernable difference between doses of 900 and 1200 mg administered three times daily (
Goff et al, 2001). The side effects of insomnia and fatigue reported by subjects assigned to CX516 in the current trial indicate that dosing was sufficient to produce central nervous system effects, although it is not clear that maximal cognitive effects were produced at this dose.
In addition to its low potency, the efficacy of CX516 may be limited by its short half-life. However, it is not clear that sustained occupancy of the AMPA receptor allosteric modulatory site is necessary or even advantageous for cognitive effects. The strongest evidence for memory enhancement with repeated dosing of CX516 came from a trial in which rats were administered a single 35 mg/kg dose of CX516 every 48 h for 17 days (
Hampson et al, 1998). Performance on the DNMS task significantly improved with alternate-day dosing and persisted after completion of the trial. Given that CX516 has a half-life of approximately 20 min in rats, this finding suggests that intermittent ‘pulsing’ of the drug may be sufficient to enhance synaptic efficiency. Similarly,
Lauterborn et al (2003) found that the Ampakine-induced increase in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene expression in rat hippocampal slice cultures is lost after 4 days pre-treatment. However, administration of the Ampakine on an alternate-day schedule preserved the positive effect on BDNF mRNA expression.
Four weeks may not have been sufficient to produce full cognitive effects with CX516. The trial duration was limited to 4 weeks by a lack of longer-term toxicity data. However, memory and learning had previously been shown to improve in trials of brief duration in both rodents and humans, including following single-dose administration. Because the same cognitive tests were administered twice over a 4-week period, it is possible that practice effects could have occurred. However, the very small within-group improvement on the composite score for the placebo group suggests that practice effects were unlikely to have played a significant factor in this study.
An additional factor that may complicate trials of Ampakine compounds in schizophrenia is the potential interaction with antipsychotic medication. Antipsychotics have been demonstrated to alter AMPA receptor density (
Spurney et al, 1999;
Schmitt et al, 2003), AMPA receptor subunit mRNA expression (
Meador-Woodruff et al, 1996;
Healy and Meador-Woodruff, 1997;
Tascedda et al, 2001), the affinity of agonists at the AMPA-binding site (
McCoy et al, 1996,
1998), and the depolarization of cells in response to glutamate (
Jardemark et al, 2000). Antipsychotic effects on AMPA receptors are complex and may be brain region specific (
Meador-Woodruff et al, 1996;
Healy and Meador-Woodruff, 1997;
Spurney et al, 1999;
Schmitt et al, 2003). In several studies, antipsychotic effects have differed between atypical agents and haloperidol (
McCoy et al, 1996;
Meador-Woodruff et al, 1996;
Healy and Meador-Woodruff, 1997;
Spurney et al, 1999;
Jardemark et al, 2000;
Schmitt et al, 2003), and differed between acute and chronic dosing (
Tascedda et al, 2001). In the example of positive modulators of the NMDA receptor, addition of glycine,
d-serine, and
d-cycloserine to clozapine has produced more negative results than addition to conventional agents (
Goff et al, 1999;
Potkin et al, 1999;
Tsai et al, 1999;
Evins et al, 2000;
Goff and Coyle, 2001). Although there was a suggestion of a difference in effect between the clozapine group and the group receiving olanzapine or risperidone in this study, the difference was not significant.
Finally, the lack of efficacy detected with CX516 at the dose used in this trial should not be taken as reason to dismiss AMPA-receptor-positive modulation as a therapeutic approach. AMPA receptors represent a highly heterogeneous target, as they vary in pharmacodynamic properties according to subunit composition and posttranscriptional editing (
Black, 2005). Pharmacologically distinct subtypes of AMPA receptors are expressed differentially according to brain region, neuron type, and stage of brain development (
Black, 2005). Growing evidence suggests that AMPA-receptor-positive modulators are also quite heterogeneous, differing not only in potency and half-life, but also in pharmacodynamic effects. Individual drugs in this class may bind to different allosteric sites, differ in affinity for AMPA receptor subtypes (
Johansen et al, 1995), and produce quite variable patterns of AMPA channel opening (
Bleakman and Lodge, 1998;
Arai et al, 2002). For example, compared to other agents, CX516 has relatively greater effects on pyramidal cells than interneurons (
Xia and Arai, 2005), does not affect AMPA receptor affinity (
Arai et al, 1996a,
b), has greater effect on excitatory postsynaptic current (EPSC) response decay (deactivation) than desensitization (
Arai and Lynch, 1998a), and primarily increases response amplitude rather than duration of response (
Arai and Lynch, 1998b). Other Ampakines have been reported to block behavioral effects of methamphetamine and of the NMDA antagonist, dizocilpine, whereas CX516 was inactive when administered alone (
Vanover, 1997), but potentiated attenuation of methamphetamine-induced rearing when combined with low-dose antipsychotics (
Johnson et al, 1999).
Because they potently elevate brain levels of neurotrophic factors, AMPA-receptor-positive modulators are under study as potential antidepressants and neuroprotective agents in addition to on-going trials in illnesses characterized by cognitive impairment (
O’Neill et al, 2004). However, future studies in schizophrenia and other disorders will require careful selection of an optimal agent and dose, administered for an adequate duration to assess for potential cognitive effects.