Focus & mind

Noopept

A synthetic dipeptide compound studied for neuroprotective activity.

About

Noopept is the common name for a synthetic dipeptide derivative developed as a nootropic agent. It is a small molecule rather than a peptide in the therapeutic sense, and is orally active — a property that distinguishes it from most compounds in this catalogue, which are peptides subject to digestive breakdown.

Mechanism

Published work reports that Noopept is metabolised in vivo to cycloprolylglycine, an endogenous dipeptide, and that some of the observed activity is attributed to this metabolite. Research associates the compound with expression of nerve growth factor and brain-derived neurotrophic factor in the hippocampus. Additional reports describe modulation of glutamatergic signalling. As with the other compounds developed in this research tradition, independent replication outside it is limited.

What research has examined

Research has examined Noopept in animal models of memory and in clinical work on mild cognitive impairment, principally within Russian literature.