Sixty-nine patients with Parkinson's disease were randomly allocated in a trial to compare the therapeutic effects of levodopa and amantadine. The patients were assessed clinically and scored by occupational therapy tasks and degrees of disability. Both drugs were used for 2 months; in the first 4 weeks the doses were gradually increased to 400 mg of amantadine or 4 g of levodopa respectively, ...

In recent years, a few of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about amantadine for treating dyskinesia in Parkinson's disease (PD) were completed. Here, we conducted a systematic literature review about the clinical research to provide the updated evidence for treating dyskinesia. Electronic search of Medline, PubMed, Cochrane Library, and other databases up to May 2016 for relevant studies was...

Amantadine inhibits the M2 proton channel of influenza A virus, yet most of the currently circulating strains of the virus carry mutations in the M2 protein that render the virus amantadine-resistant. While most of the research on novel amantadine analogues has revolved around the synthesis of novel adamantane derivatives, we have recently found that other polycyclic scaffolds effectively block...

Background and aim: In this study, we compared the efficacy of triple therapy (interferon alfa, ribavirin, and amantadine) with standard therapy (interferon alfa and ribavirin) in treatment naı̈ve patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV). Methods: In this prospective, randomised, double blind, placebo controlled, multicentre study, 85 patients (amantadine group) received a three drug regime...

BACKGROUND Fatigue is a common symptom in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). It has significant negative effects on the quality of life of patients with the condition. There are few therapeutic modalities for fatigue, which are also usually not sufficiently effective. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture on this common symptom of patients with MS. METHODS In t...

The interactions of (15)N-labeled amantadine, an antiinfluenza A drug, with DMPC bilayers were investigated by solid-state NMR and by a 12.6-ns molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The drug was found to assume a single preferred orientation and location when incorporated in these bilayers. The experimental and MD computational results demonstrate that the long axis of amantadine is on average pa...

Considerable attention has been paid to a possible role of immunological dysregulation in the pathogenesis of depression. It has been reported that combined administration of antidepressant drugs and the non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist amantadine reduces immobility time in the forced swimming test (FST). Moreover, preliminary clinical data show that such a combination of drugs has a be...

The channel of NMDA receptors is blocked by a wide variety of drugs. NMDA receptor channel blockers include drugs of abuse that induce psychotic behavior, such as phencyclidine, and drugs with wide therapeutic utility, such as amantadine and memantine. We describe here the molecular mechanism of amantadine inhibition. In contrast to most other described channel-blocking molecules, amantadine ca...

The benefit of the triple therapy (interferon + amantadine + ribavirim) is still unknown. The efficacy of induction doses of interferon-alpha-2a monotherapy or in combination with ribavirin and/or amantadine was evaluated in interferon non-responders with chronic hepatitis C. A total of 378 patients were randomized. All the groups received the same doses and duration of interferon-alpha-2a: (i)...

PURPOSE Recent advances in the diagnosis and treatment of influenza, such as rapid testing and neuraminidase inhibitor therapy, are available, but their place in clinical practice and their cost-effectiveness have not been determined. MATERIALS AND METHODS To estimate the cost-effectiveness of these newer interventions, we used a decision model that compared several influenza management strat...