Xaliproden (codenamed SR57746) is a drug which acts as a 5HT_1A

agonist An agonist is a chemical that activates a receptor to produce a biological response. Receptors are cellular proteins whose activation causes the cell to modify what it is currently doing. In contrast, an antagonist blocks the action of the ago ...

. It has neurotrophic and neuroprotective effects ''

in vitro ''In vitro'' (meaning in glass, or ''in the glass'') studies are performed with microorganisms, cells, or biological molecules outside their normal biological context. Colloquially called "test-tube experiments", these studies in biology an ...

'', and has been proposed for use in the treatment of several neurodegenerative conditions including

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

(ALS) and

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

. Development of xaliproden for these two indications was discontinued in 2007 following analysis of Phase III data. While the drug did show an effect on hippocampal volume (suggesting perhaps a slowing of cell loss), there was insufficient evidence for efficacy in counteracting Alzheimer's related cognitive decline. Similarly while there were some indicators of efficacy in ALS, including a small but clinically noteworthy effect on some functional parameters, the overall benefit did not reach

statistical significance In statistical hypothesis testing, a result has statistical significance when it is very unlikely to have occurred given the null hypothesis (simply by chance alone). More precisely, a study's defined significance level, denoted by \alpha, is the p ...

when results across several Phase III trials were averaged. Xaliproden remains under investigation for treatment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. Paliroden was also explored as a treatment for people living with

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

References

Abandoned drugs Serotonin receptor agonists Trifluoromethyl compounds Tetrahydropyridines 2-Naphthyl compounds {{nervous-system-drug-stub