Huperzine A, a potential therapeutic agent for treatment of Alzheimer's disease

HupA is a potent, reversible and selective inhibitor of AChE with a rapid a bsorption and penetration into the brain in animal tests. It exhibits memor y-enhancing activities in animal and clinical trials. Compared to tacrine a nd donepezil, HupA possesses a longer duration of; action and higher therap eutic index, and the peripheral cholinergic side effects are minimal at the rapeutic doses. This review article deals with a comprehensive survey of I the progress in chemical and pharmacological studies of HupA including the isolation and structure elucidation, pharmacological actions, total synthes is, SAR studies and the future development of HupA, Recently, it has been reported that HupA could reduce neuronal cell death c aused by glutamate. The dual bio-activities of HupA would further enhance i ts value and potentiality as the therapeutic agent for Alzheimer's disease.