Traneurocin Phase 2A Trial Results Show Improvements for People With Mild Cognitive Impairment

Over a 48-week period, treatment with traneurocin (NA-831; Neuroactiva, San Jose, CA) improved cognition and global functioning in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Traneurocin is an endogenous small molecule that was well-tolerated with no adverse events.

Individuals with MCI or early onset Alzheimer’s disease (EOAD) treated with traneurocin (10 mg for those with MCI; 30 mg for those with EOAD) had improved cognition after 12 weeks of treatment compared with those given placebo (P < .001). Cognition was measured with the brief cognitive rating scale (BRCS) and the areas of improvement included fatigue, anxiety, irritability, affective lability, disturbance to waking, daytime drowsiness, headache, and nocturnal sleep. 

Individuals with mild or moderate Alzheimer’s disease (AD) had less decrease in their Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale-cognition (ADAS-Cog) scores than those treated with placebo (−4.7 vs −8.6; P = 0.001). The clinician interview-based impression of change plus caregiver input (CIBIC-Plus) scores improved for 79.3% of those treated with traneurocin; whereas, only 21.7 % of people treated with placebo had improvement as measured by CIBIC-Plus. 

Enrollees were individuals with MCI and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) score of 20 (n = 32) or more or with early onset Alzheimer’s disease (EOAD) and MMSE score more than 17 (n = 24). All enrollees had a score of 27 or more on the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression measure to control for any effect of depression.