ArticleCurrent Alzheimer research2012
Was phenserine a failure or were investigators mislead by methods?
Article in Current Alzheimer research, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Drug repurposing: a systematic review on root causes, barriers and facilitators.BMC health services research · 2022Pooled it
- Gastroretentive Delivery Approach to Address pH-Dependent Degradation of (+)- and (-)-Phenserine.AAPS PharmSciTech · 2024Article
- Potential revival of cholinesterase inhibitors as drugs in veterinary medicine.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2023Review
- Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Biscarbamates as Potential Selective Butyrylcholinesterase Inhibitors for the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Imidazopyridazine Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors Display Potent Anti-Proliferative Effects in the Human Neuroblastoma Cell-Line, IMR-32.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors in the Treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Role of Acetylcholinesterase in their Pathogenesis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Does traumatic brain injury hold the key to the Alzheimer's disease puzzle?Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2018Review
- Pharmacophore-based design and discovery of (-)-meptazinol carbamates as dual modulators of cholinesterase and amyloidogenesis.Journal of enzyme inhibition and medicinal chemistry · 2017Article
- A new regulatory road-map for Alzheimer's disease drug development.Current Alzheimer research · 2014Review
- Alzheimer's disease drug-development pipeline: few candidates, frequent failures.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Over 200 Alzheimer's disease (AD) drug candidates have failed in development, and other neuropsychiatric trials have had their validity compromised. Studies suggest that methodological errors can be a source for these compromises and failures. We gained access to documentation for phenserine, an experimental AD drug that reached phase III clinical trials. The 06 Phase III trial was cited by the developers as grounds for their abandonment of the development. We compared evidence for interventions to control methodological errors and grounds for moving through phases of drug development to 40 other randomly selected AD developments we had studied. We analyzed methods and conditions of the 06 phenserine clinical trial, for biases able to account for its abandonment during development. The phenserine development failed to control error sources able to affect the outcomes. There are statistically significant relationships in the 06 clinical trial between outcomes at research sites and levels of variance, placebo group improvements and other factors. We conclude that phenserine was abandoned, at least in part, due to a clinical trial invalidated by relationships among its methods and outcomes.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.