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| |  Data Shows Evidence Of Mechanism Of Action Of Citicoline In Stroke Treatment LEXINGTON, MA -- Dec. 17, 1998 -- Researchers at the Brain Imaging Center at McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA., have for the first time demonstrated that chronic administration of Interneuron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s citicoline increases the amount of essential cell membrane components, known as phospholipid precursors, in the human brain. Their data represent the first demonstration that human brain lipid metabolism can be modified using a pharmacological, or drug treatment, strategy. Previous studies in animals have suggested that citicoline can affect such metabolism by increasing phosphatidylcholine production and incorporating this phospholipid into brain cell membranes in injured or aging animal brains. Data from the study were presented this week by Dr. Perry Renshaw of McLean before the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Citicoline is currently in Phase III clinical as a treatment for ischemic stroke. The study involved 14 volunteers over the age of 60. Each subject's brain was imaged using the specialised technique of magnetic resonance spectroscopy. This technique has been used to document changes in brain phospholipids in a range of central nervous disorders. The subjects were then administered citicoline, 500 milligrams orally per day for six weeks and imaged again. This dosing regimen of citicoline is the same as used in previous trials in stroke patients and lower than the regimen employed in Interneuron's ongoing Phase III trial (2,000 milligrams orally per day for six weeks). Citicoline treatment was associated with statistically significant increases in phosphocholine (10 percent) and glycerophosphoethanolamine (18 percent).
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