Cognitive & Neuroprotection
Cortexin
Cortexin is a fraction of small proteins extracted from cattle brain cortex and injected into muscle, and its exact composition has never been fully characterised — a medicine defined by its source rather than its contents. It is approved in Russia and named in Russian national guidelines for acute ischaemic stroke; no other major regulator has assessed it. The one placebo-controlled trial on file, in 272 stroke patients treated within a day of onset, is published in Russian and reported benefit, but the 2023 Cochrane review that examined it alongside Cerebrolysin concluded that adding either probably does not reduce the risk of dying and increases serious non-fatal adverse events.
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Mechanism
A mixed peptide fraction reported to modulate glutamate and GABA receptor signalling and limit oxidative neuronal injury; composition is not fully characterised.
Reported effects
What sources associate with this compound. Reported categories, not outcomes we have graded — each would need its own citation and rung.
- Post-stroke recovery research
- Neuroprotection context
- Cognitive outcome research
Dosing on file unverified
10-20 mg/day IM for 10 days; Stroke: 10 mg 2-3x/day; Chronic ischemia: 10-20 mg/day for 10 days, repeated after 6 months
Carried from a source that labels it unverified, and reproduced with that label attached. A record of what is reported, not a recommendation. No citation on this page establishes it.
Literature on file 3
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human RCT
[Therapeutic equivalence of intravenous and intramuscular dosage forms of Cortexin in ischemic strokes] (Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr Im S S Korsakova 2025) graded on: names a randomised controlled trial — the indexed publication type — “Randomized Controlled”
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animal in vivo
Cortexin modulates OPG/RANK/RANKL and TRPC1 expression in cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury. graded on: an animal model — read from the indexed abstract — “Rats”
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animal in vivo
Neurotropic Effects of Cortexin on Models of Mental and Physical Developmental Delay. graded on: an animal model — read from the indexed abstract — “rat”
Notes unverified prose
Approved in Russia; dose-dependent RCT: 10 mg vs 20 mg IM for 10 days; low-dose stroke study: 10 mg 3x/day IM; DIACORT multicenter RCT; PMID: 41524350
Not on file 9
8 of the 8 fields we track hold nothing on this record, and each says why. 1 further absence is named below. A blank field is a bug; a named absence is a finding.
- molecular weightnothing we hold supplies it
- molecular formulanothing we hold supplies it
- CAS registry numbernothing we hold supplies it
- PubChem identifiernothing we hold supplies it
- amino-acid sequencenot applicable to this compound
- SMILES stringnothing we hold supplies it
- InChInothing we hold supplies it
- InChI keynothing we hold supplies it
- half-lifenothing we hold supplies it
Each field links to every other record missing the same thing. The full ledger holds 765 gaps across 163 records.