Sodium oligomannate (development code GV-971) is a mixture of oligosaccharides isolated from the marine algae Ecklonia kurome that is used in China as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease (AD).
[1] It was conditionally approved in China by the National Medical Products Administration in 2019 for mild to moderate AD to improve cognitive function.
[1] However, the clinical data supporting its potential benefits have been received skeptically elsewhere[2][3][4] and are considered insufficient for approval in other countries.
Therefore, it is still undergoing Phase III clinical trials necessary for regulatory approval in the United States and Europe.
[7] The mechanism by which sodium oligomannate may function is unclear and several possibilities have been proposed,[6] including amyloid beta disaggregation,[8] mediation of inflammatory responses to amyloid plaques,[9] protein binding inside neurons,[10] and alteration of intestinal bacteria.