IEC 2025 | Huperzine A for the treatment of epilepsy: unanswered questions and ongoing research

Number one of course would be the question of safety which I omitted from my previous answer. In general the potential adverse effects from acetylcholinesterase inhibitors are pretty well known. Hypersalivation and activation of gastrointestinal activity, nausea, all of these are to be expected to be easily manageable but we need the completion of clinical studies to assess how this plays out in real life. Another important question that relates to the two previous questions is there are already a lot of other anti-acetylcholinesterase inhibitors around. Don’t they also act as anti-seizure drugs? Well, they have been tested and shown that none of them really has comparable anti-epileptic activity to Huperzine A. So Huperzine A really is very specific, highly specific for CNS acetylcholinesterase and thereby it has this very specific effect. We also expect as a potential side effect of the use, clinical use of Huperzine A that it might support cognitive action and memory since cholinesterase inhibitors typically are used as medications against dementia and also that’s the original use of this club moss Lycopodiopsida in Chinese medicine from where this plant-derived drug was originally taken from. Furthermore, of course, prior to general clinical use, the clinical efficacy has to be further defined. So the clinical studies have to be completed. Phase IIa already has been promising and now there are preparations for Phase IIb in larger patient samples and for longer duration as well as then a global program for Phase III testing and after these data are in which should be expected in a few years we’re hoping that Huperzine A can be registered and approved for clinical use and application.

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