Psychopharmacological Neuroprotection in Neurodegenerative Disease: Assessing the Preclinical Data

In Part I of this report, the authors reviewed preclinical and clinical evidence of neuroprotection by psychotropics and proposed criteria to predict translational neuroprotection. Here, the authors review a broad array of neuroprotective mechanisms and, based on evidence reviewed in Part I, consider agents with pharmacodynamic mechanisms of action that may be associated with neuroprotection. The neuroprotective potential of the pharmacodynamic mechanisms discussed here are held in common with drugs that evidenced neuroprotective potential in Part I. The agents examined here have symptomatic utility in neurodegenerative disease neuropsychiatric disorders and combine the most promising pharmacodynamic mechanisms yet have received insufficient research to date. Modafinil, duloxetine, ziprasidone, s-zopiclone, and ramelteon are evaluated in terms of their putative neuropsychiatric symptomatic and heuristic neuroprotective disease-modifying potentials. The authors review these agents in terms of their potential for clinical neuroprotection and suggest a criterion-based research agenda for future studies of their neuroprotective potential. Further research is needed with regard to the 10 translational neuroprotective candidate criteria, neuroprotective clinical trials, the correlation of psychotropic pharmacodynamic mechanisms with neuroprotective actions, and the translational predictive utility of the proposed candidate criteria.