Piperidine is a normal constituent in mammalian brain. It was shown to affect synaptic mechanism in the CNS, and influence neural mechanisms governing regulation of emotional behavior, sleeping, and extrapyramidal function. In addition, there are enzyme systems within the brain that synthesize and metabolize piperidine, and uptake and storage mechanisms for piperidine are found in the nerve endings. Piperidine, which proved to be a highly effective “antipsychotomimetic” agent in rats, has been reported to bring about substantial improvement in a variety of schizophrenic patients.

PHA-543613 was discovered by Pfizer and has been under development primarily as a potential treatment of schizophrenia. PHA-543613 acts as an agonist to the Neuronal acetylcholine receptor protein alpha-7 subunit. A single human trial was conducted in healthy human volunteers, but the compound has been studied extensively in rat models for schizophrenia as well as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.