DOSEGUY

CE-123

guinea pig

Also seen as: (S)-CE-123, S-CE-123, CE123

The Dose Guy’s verdict
Sep 1, 2026
3 sources

Interesting pharmacology, zero human data. CE-123 is a modafinil-inspired dopamine reuptake inhibitor with clean selectivity and strong rodent cognition results, but nobody has dosed a person with it and published the result. The mechanism story is real. The human story does not exist yet. If you want the dopaminergic angle, modafinil or bromantane actually have people behind them.

Would I take it?Caution, zero human data.

What it is

CE-123 is an atypical dopamine transporter inhibitor built on the modafinil scaffold. It blocks dopamine reuptake at the DAT while leaving serotonin and norepinephrine transporters essentially untouched, a selectivity profile that in theory gives you motivation and cognitive drive without the broader monoamine noise. In rats, S-CE-123 reaches an unbound brain-to-plasma concentration ratio five times that of R-modafinil, meaning more of the free drug sits in the brain at steady state. The Austrian research group behind it has run it through a solid stack of rodent cognition models, from spatial memory to effort choice to aged-rat learning. What is missing is any evidence it works or is safe in a person.

On the nootropic shelf, bromantane works the dopamine angle from the synthesis side rather than reuptake, and at least has human use behind it.

What the research shows

No human trials. Zero. Everything below is animal or in-vitro work. Read it as “interesting,” not “evidence it works in you.”

The animal program is unusually thorough for a research chemical on this shelf. The human program does not exist:

CE-123 blocked dopamine uptake at the human dopamine transporter with an IC50 of 4.606 micromolar, while effects at SERT and NET were negligible.Behav Brain Res 2018 · rat + human transporter assay
In 27 aged male rats, CE-123 increased motivation, improved a new operant discrimination task and social cooperation, and mildly increased impulsivity.Sci Rep 2021 · randomized blind · n=27 aged rats
S-CE-123 had an unbound brain-to-plasma concentration ratio of 0.5, compared with 0.1 for R-modafinil, and underwent hepatic metabolism 9.3 times faster.IJMS 2023 · rat tissue distribution
No human study of CE-123 exists in the indexed literature. Not a missed trial, not a shelved program. Zero.as of Aug 2026

Realistic protocols

No human has been dosed with CE-123 in any published study, so there is no protocol to write. The rat doses that produced cognitive effects ranged from 0.3 to 24 mg/kg depending on the model, but allometric scaling from rat to human is guesswork, not guidance, and S-CE-123 metabolizes 9.3 times faster than R-modafinil in rats, making duration a complete unknown in people. If you source it and run it anyway, start at the lowest amount you can measure, go short, and understand that you are the experiment from first principles, not a late adopter with a community playbook.

Side effects

No side-effect profile exists in humans. Everything here is inferred from the animal work:

monitorMildly increased impulsivity was noted in the aged-rat cognition study. Whether this translates to humans is unknown.
monitorCE-123 metabolizes fast in rats. Duration, peak, and accumulation in a person are unmeasured.
unknownZero human safety data. Not thin data, none. Running this is first-in-human experimentation on yourself.

Where to buy

No live listings from tracked vendors right now.