Omberacetam

Also known as Noopept, omberacetam is a small, lab made compound built from two amino-acid-like units. Russian scientists first made it in 1996 and looked at what it did for thinking as well as for shielding nerve cells from harm. Its chemical makeup differs from an older nootropic family called racetams, though researchers place it in that group anyway because their research goals overlap, and its reported effects show up at far smaller amounts than an older compound in that family, piracetam.

What it is

Chemically, the literature describes omberacetam as N-phenylacetyl-L-prolylglycine ethyl ester, a two-part molecule rather than a longer peptide chain. Once inside the body, it turns into an active byproduct known as cycloprolylglycine, which researchers think interacts with a brain signaling chemical called glutamate along with two nerve growth proteins, BDNF and NGF.

Researchers group omberacetam with an older family of compounds called racetams because of a shared research history around memory and learning, even though its own chemical structure is different from theirs.

How it is studied

Research on omberacetam spans rat pituitary-derived nerve cells grown in a laboratory dish and exposed to a toxic protein fragment linked to Alzheimer's disease, a rat study measuring nerve growth protein activity in the hippocampus after both a single injection and repeated daily injections, and a human clinical comparison against an older compound, piracetam, in people with mild cognitive problems following a stroke or traumatic brain injury.

What studies report

A laboratory study using rat pituitary-derived nerve cells reported that omberacetam improved cell survival and reduced a marker of Alzheimer's-related damage called tau hyperphosphorylation after the cells were exposed to a toxic protein fragment called amyloid-beta. [1]
A rat study reported that a single injection raised activity of the nerve growth proteins BDNF and NGF in the hippocampus, a brain region tied to memory, and that repeated daily injections over 28 days did not blunt this effect. [2]
A 56 day human comparison against piracetam in people with mild cognitive problems following vascular disease or traumatic brain injury reported improvement on the Mini-Mental State Examination, with average scores in the omberacetam group rising from 26 to 29 out of 30. [3]
That same comparison trial reported that omberacetam was effective in the traumatic brain injury patients as well as the vascular patients, while piracetam's benefit in that trial was described as limited to the vascular group. [3]

What is not known

The laboratory neuron study used rat pituitary-derived cells rather than human neurons, so it does not show whether the same protective effect happens inside a living human brain. The human comparison trial was measured against an older compound rather than a placebo, so it is unclear how much of the reported improvement reflects natural recovery over the 56 days rather than the compound itself, and long term safety beyond about two months has not been established in the citations reviewed for this entry.

Reported adverse findings

Reports describing the human comparison trial note side effects in the omberacetam group that included sleep disturbance, irritability, and increased blood pressure in a minority of the roughly 30 patients treated, though this review could not confirm the exact side effect counts against the original trial report. [3]

Regulatory status

Omberacetam is not approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for any use in the United States. The record reviewed here does not establish an approval status in any other jurisdiction.