Citicoline is a relatively cheap common drug. It is a metabolic activator that can promote brain cell respiration, improve brain function, enhance the function of the ascending reticular formation activation system, promote awakening, and reduce cerebral vascular resistance.
In the mid-1960s, Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical Company successfully developed citicoline for the first time and launched white carbon black under the trade name “Nicholin”. It was introduced to China in 1988. Nowadays, citicoline sodium has been included in the second part of the 2005 edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia and is named citicoline. Its English name is: Citichaline Sodium. Its chemical name is: monosodium salt of choline cytosine nucleoside diphosphate. C14H25N4NaO11P2 molecular weight 5 chain extender 10.31 (all sodium salt containing varieties) (Figure 1).
Looking at the website of the State Food and Drug Administration, a total of 125 companies have approved Citicoline Injection, 20 companies have approved Citicoline Sodium Chloride Injection, 15 companies have approved Citicoline Glucose Injection, and 19 companies have approved powder injection. There are 4 approved oral preparations of citicoline, all of which are citicoline sodium preparations. The former name was citicoline injection, which means that citicoline injection is also citicoline. The sodium salt of alkali is a white crystal, sponge-like water-absorbent powder, soluble in water and almost insoluble in alcohol.
After oral absorption or parenteral administration, citicoline or citicoline sodium can be hydrolyzed by phosphodiesterase on the cell membrane in the body (Figure 2) into cytidine monophosphate and phosphocholine base, both molecules are subsequently dephosphorylated, taken up into cells, and regenerated into citicoline by the action of intracellular enzymes. Following oral or intravenous administration of citicoline, only very small amounts of citicoline are taken up by the brain as choline and cytidine, but these are used in the synthesis of endogenous citicoline and subsequently in the biosynthesis of phospholipids and other Quantity utilization is very efficient.
