Coluracetam Review
What is Coluracetam and why should you consider adding it to your nootropic stack? Here’s our Coluracetam review to help you decide.
What is Coluracetam?
Coluracetam is a nootropic drug classified as a racetam. It’s purported to boost cognition by preserving choline uptake into neurons that are otherwise impaired.
At this point, Coluracetam is backed by minimal scientific evidence (some sources, like Examine.com, even say “there is no evidence for inherent nootropic effects” in Coluracetam).
The drug is also known by all of the following names: MKC-231, BCI-540, 2-(2-oxopyrrolidin-1-yl)-N-(2, 3-dimethyl-5, 6, 7, 8-tetrahydrofuro2, 3-b quinolin-4-yl)acetoamide
Coluracetam was once studied by a Japanese pharmaceutical company that believed it could be used to treat Alzheimer’s. It failed to get through clinical trials and was purchased by a nootropics retailer.
How Does Coluracetam Work?
Early studies on Coluracetam indicate that it works in a very similar way to Piracetam, Aniracetam, and other racetam compounds. Specifically, Coluracetam interacts with a process in your brain known as high affinity choline uptake (HACU).
HACU is the rate-limiting step of drawing choline into a neuron to be synthesized into the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. By increasing the HACU rate, you can increase cholinergic neurons in your brain, which thereby raises levels of acetylcholine. Ultimately, the more cholinergic neurons in your brain, the more powerful your cognitive enhancement will be.
Coluracetam has not yet been studied in human subjects. Most studies to date have involved rats. Thus far, Coluracetam appears to be well-tolerated in rats, although only a very low oral dose is needed.
Coluracetam may actually have two mechanisms of action: researchers have noticed that Coluracetam is also physically associated with choline transporters, which means that it binds to these transporters. Researchers aren’t quite sure what Coluracetam does once it binds to these transporters, but they’re working on it.
Scientific Evidence for Coluracetam
In rats, Coluracetam has demonstrated all of the following benefits:
— Reducing the effects of learning deficits (yes, apparently rats can have learning deficits).
— Boosts mood and memory, with some evidence even suggesting that the positive happiness effects on the brain are “semi-permanent”
That’s about all the scientific evidence backing up Coluracetam. However, if you look up user reviews online, you’ll find people talking about Coluracetam’s benefits as everything from a study drug and as a mild stimulant.
One reviewer on Reddit even claimed that sounds became fuller and richer while taking Coluracetam, and that colors in the world around them seemed brighter.
How to Use Coluracetam
Most studies to date involving animals have used an oral dose of 300 to 3,000 mcg/kg of bodyweight.
Translated to human doses, the average human dose would be 48 to 480 mcg/kg of bodyweight, which works out to 3.2 to 32.7mg dosages for a 150 pound individual.
The drug appears to go to work quickly: levels of Coluracetam in your blood peak at about 30 minutes after ingestion and start to decline within 3 hours.
Who Makes Coluracetam?
Coluracetam was initially developed and tested by a pharmaceutical company called the Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation. That company tested the drug’s effectiveness at treating Alzheimer’s disease.
After Coluracetam failed to exhibit its effectiveness in clinical trials, it was licensed by a company named BrainCells Inc., which then tested Coluracetam for use in treating major depressive disorder.
BrainCells Inc. is a private company based in San Diego, California at the following address:
BrainCells Inc.3636 Nobel Drive Suite 215
San Diego, CA 92122
The company develops a wide range of biopharmaceutical products for treatment of central nervous system diseases.
It was founded in 2003. You can learn more about the company and its executive team at this Bloomberg business profile.
How to Buy Coluracetam
Coluracetam is available from a small number of retailers online. One of the few retailers that currently sells Coluracetam is Ceretropic.com.
— Ceretropic sells a 20mg sublingual Coluracetam solution for $44.99. The supplement contains 60 x 20mg doses of Coluracetam. The half dropper contains .5mL of Coluracetam and each bottle contains 30mL total volume.
— You can also find Coluracetam at Powder City, where it comes in the dry powdered form. A 1/4 gram costs $11.57 and 5 grams costs $69.99.
— PureNootropics has the same sublingual Coluracetam supplement as Ceretropic, although it’s priced slightly higher, at $49.99 instead of $44.99.
Who Should Use Coluracetam?
Would you use a chemical compound that has only ever been tested on rats? If you answered yes to that question, then Coluracetam is a great nootropic for you.
Remember: rat brains are significantly different from human brains. The effects that researchers have noticed in rats in two studies (yes, just two) aren’t exactly overwhelming. This hasn’t stopped Coluracetam from being a popular new nootropic.
It’s probably best to wait for more scientific evidence before you start using Coluracetam.