ATC Group: N06DA Anticholinesterases

The World Health Organization's ATC classification organizes medical drugs based on therapeutic properties, chemical composition, and anatomy. It helps make essential medicines readily available globally and is widely used in the pharmaceutical industry.

Position of N06DA in the ATC hierarchy

Level Code Title
1 N Nervous system
2 N06 Psychoanaleptics
3 N06D Anti-dementia drugs
4 N06DA Anticholinesterases

Group N06DA contents

Code Title
N06DA01 Tacrine
N06DA02 Donepezil
N06DA03 Rivastigmine
N06DA04 Galantamine
N06DA05
N06DA52 Donepezil and memantine
N06DA53

Active ingredients in N06DA

Active Ingredient Description
Donepezil

Donepezil hydrochloride is a specific and reversible inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase, the predominant cholinesterase in the brain. Donepezil hydrochloride is in vitro over 1000 times more potent an inhibitor of this enzyme than of butyrylcholinesterase, an enzyme that is present mainly outside the central nervous system.

Galantamine

Galantamine, a tertiary alkaloid is a selective, competitive and reversible inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase. In addition, galantamine enhances the intrinsic action of acetylcholine on nicotinic receptors, probably through binding to an allosteric site of the receptor. As a consequence, an increased activity in the cholinergic system associated with improved cognitive function can be achieved in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type.

Ipidacrine
Rivastigmine

Rivastigmine is an acetyl- and butyrylcholinesterase inhibitor of the carbamate type, thought to facilitate cholinergic neurotransmission by slowing the degradation of acetylcholine released by functionally intact cholinergic neurones. Thus, rivastigmine may have an ameliorative effect on cholinergic-mediated cognitive deficits in dementia associated with Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

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