4 replies to this topic

[Sciencyst]

Ampakines affect the AMPA receptor, and for our uses we will use the term to refer to AMPA positive allosteric modulators.

These included aniracetam, unifiram, oxiracetam, piracetam, IDRA-21, pramiracetam, and sunifiram.

L-theanine would block the desired effects of such agents because it is an antagonist of AMPA, and therefore will interfere or completely negate the effects of the aforementioned nootropics.

https://www.jstage.j...2_2683/_article

This also nicely explains why I wasn't feeling a whole lot from aniracetam nor l-theanine, and was able to take ridiculous amounts of l-theanine without any appreciable effect.

[Sanguine_Rogue]

Interesting I had always thought that L-Theanine was synergistic with Piracetam. I appreciate this information as L-Theanine is part of my nootropic stack, I guess I will shift it around so that it doesn't cause any interference with what I regularly take.

[Sciencyst]

Well I suppose piracetam may still have some acetylcholine effects combined with it... and l-theanine is only a weak blocker of AMPA, but it's still definitely going to change the experience and dampen any AMPA mediated nootropic effect. Or at least it did in my experience.

I'm not too sure of l-theanine's half life, but if it's short you could take it to help sleep at night, and it could potentially reverse tolerance to to piracetam's effects, albet I poorly understand the mechanism of AMPA up/down regulating and suspect it goes by slightly different rules than many other receptors.

[mrd1]

I don't mean to be that guy who ruins all the fun. But, since l theanine only inhibits the ampa receptors in the micromolar range, if powerful activators of the ampa receptor with Ki values in the nanomolar range are used it seems unlikely that l theanine's micromolar inhibition would matter at any dosage. Since 1 micromolar = 1000 nanomolar and 1 nanomolar is weaker than 0.1 nanomolar and stronger than say 1 micromolar. I could be wrong though, either way interesting find that link was a good read.

Edited by mrd1, 04 March 2014 - 06:08 AM.

[Sciencyst]

Nah, you aren't ruining the fun, haha. If anything, I was ruining it, and you restored it! Thanks for pointing out the nM vs uM thing. Still I-theanine can definitely alter some racetam effects to an extent.