Nimodipine Decreases Frontal and Parietal Cortical Activity During Working Memory in Healthy Subjects
At a recent scientific meeting, researcher Kristin Bigos and colleagues described the effects of nimodipine, a treatment for brain hemorrhage, on the brain during working memory tasks. Nimodipine is a dihydropyridine L-type calcium channel blocker. Calcium channel blockers prevent calcium from entering cells in the heart and blood vessel walls, and they are often used to treat high blood pressure.
Nimodipine acts on the CACNA1C calcium influx gene. Certain genetic variations in this gene (particularly the rs1006737 A allele) have been linked to vulnerability to bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, and autism. Carriers of the risk allele also have higher CACNA1C mRNA expression in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and exhibit more activity in the frontal and parietal regions of the brain during working memory tasks, suggesting inefficient brain processing in these regions. Bigos and colleagues found that 60mg/day of nimodipine decreased frontal and parietal cortical activity by 39.1% and 42.8%, respectively, during a working memory task, suggesting that nimodipine improved the efficiency of memory processing. Nimodipine’s positive effects were greater in those participants who had the CACNA1C risk allele.
Editor’s Note: Using a placebo-controlled off-on-off-on study design (meaning patients took placebo for a period, then nimodipine, then placebo again and nimodipine again), this editor (Robert M. Post), Peggy J. Pazzaglia and colleagues found that nimodipine had positive effects in both mania and depression in patients with bipolar disorder (described in the 2008 book Treatment of Bipolar Disorder: A Casebook for Clinicians and Patients by Robert M. Post and Gabriele S. Leverich). In a large randomized study of patients with bipolar disorder presented by Haroon R. Chaudhry at the 2010 meeting of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, lithium was associated with about a 50% response rate while the combination of lithium and nimodipine was associated with a 73% response rate.
It remains to be seen whether people with bipolar disorder who have the CACNA1C risk gene would respond better to nimodipine than those without the risk gene, and whether it would improve working memory more in the subgroup with the risk gene.
