About the Authors

Ronald W. Irwin

Affiliation Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Science, School of Pharmacy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Christine M. Solinsky

Affiliation Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics Program, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Carlos M. Loya

Affiliation Sage Therapeutics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Francesco G. Salituro

Affiliation Sage Therapeutics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Kathleen E. Rodgers

Affiliation Titus Family Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Economics & Policy, School of Pharmacy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Gerhard Bauer

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California Davis, Sacramento, California, United States of America

Michael A. Rogawski

Affiliation Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, University of California Davis, Sacramento, California, United States of America

Roberta Diaz Brinton

rbrinton@usc.edu

Affiliations Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Science, School of Pharmacy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, Department of Neurology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United states of America

Competing Interests

There are patents and products in development. Patents pending on allopregnanolone as a therapeutic for mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease, and other CNS disorders. The authors report the filing of the following patents relevant to this research: 1) AGENTS, COMPOSITIONS AND METHODS FOR ENHANCING NEUROLOGICAL FUNCTION (Application number: 12/701,309, Publication number: US 2010/0204192 A1, and Filing date: Feb 5, 2010). 2) ALLOPREGNANOLONE IN A METHOD FOR ENHANCING NEUROLOGICAL FUNCTION (Application number: 12/526,604, Publication number: US 2010/0105646 A1, Filing date: Jun 11, 2008, and patent #8,969,329 issued March 03, 2015). CML and FGS are employees of Sage Therapeutics. However, they had no role in the analyses or collecting of data. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: RWI RDB. Performed the experiments: RWI CMS. Analyzed the data: RWI CMS KER RDB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: CML FGS GB MAR RDB. Wrote the paper: RWI CMS KER RDB.