Archives internationales de pharmacodynamie et de therapie最新文献

The effects of the antimalarial drug, mefloquine, on the uptake and release of Ca2+ by crude microsomes from dog brain were investigated using a spectrophotometric method. Mefloquine inhibited the inositol-1,4,5-phosphate (IP3)-induced Ca2+ release with an IC50 of 42 microM, but was a weaker inhibitor of the uptake of Ca2+ into the vesicles (IC50: 272 microM). These effects of mefloquine are in contrast to its actions on Ca2+ uptake and release by skeletal muscle microsomes, where its predominant effect was seen to be the inhibition of Ca2+ uptake into the vesicles. Mefloquine was found to be more potent than quinine as a specific inhibitor of Ca2+ release from IP3-sensitive stores in dog brain microsomes. The possibility of the drug affecting cellular IP3-linked signal transduction processes should be considered.

The present study was undertaken to examine the possible therapeutic effects on nebracetam on the energy metabolism of rat brain regions in microsphere-induced, sustained ischemia. Microsphere embolism was induced by injection of 900 microspheres (48 microns in diameter) into the right internal carotid artery of rats, and changes in the energy metabolism of the cerebral cortex, striatum and hippocampus of the right hemisphere were determined without and with nebracetam treatment. Microsphere embolism induced increases in lactate and glucose contents and decreases of ATP and creatine phosphate contents in these regions, suggesting that sustained impairment of cerebral energy metabolism occurred. These changes were gradually reversed with time after the operation. Treatment of microsphere-injected rats with 30 mg/kg of nebracetam, p.o., twice a day, was started one day after the onset of cerebral ischemia. The effects of treatment with nebracetam on cerebral energy metabolites were determined on the 3rd and 7th day after operation. Treatment of microsphere-injected rats with nebracetam significantly improved these variables on the 3rd day after the onset of ischemia, but the improvement was small on the 7th day, except for reversal of the hippocampal ATP content. These results suggest that nebracetam is a possible therapeutic agent for the restoration of cerebral energy metabolism against microsphere-induced, sustained cerebral ischemia.

Hypothermia produces marked changes in cardiac activity and response to different anesthetic interventions. Isolated spontaneously beating right, or electrically stimulated left rat atria were examined while heart rate, sinus node recovery time, developed force, and effective refractory period were measured at 35 and 20 degrees C. Thus, we wanted to investigate the influence of low temperature on the cardiac effects of midazolam. The preparations were exposed to seven progressively increasing concentrations of midazolam. At 35 degrees C, midazolam produced a concentration-dependent positive inotropic effect and had a biphasic effect (shortening followed by lengthening) on the effective refractory period. These effects are best explained as due to a release of endogenous catecholamines, since the positive inotropy was completely blocked by propranolol. In reserpinized animals, there was no effect of midazolam. Midazolam, however, significantly decreased heart rate and increased the sinus node recovery time; these responses are believed to be direct effects. At 20 degrees C, midazolam had no effect on the developed force but, when a high concentration was administered, it significantly reduced the effective refractory period. Heart rate values were first increased and the reduced to control values. No effect on the sinus node recovery time was observed. Thus, hypothermia may reduce the catecholamine release and mask the effect of midazolam on cardiac tissue by mechanisms not yet fully understood.

Fractionation of the rat lung yielded a 54,000 g supernate, and DOC-solubilized 775 g, 3100 g and 54,000 g sediments, each of these preparations displaying an increasing angiotensin-converting enzyme activity with increasing dilution, suggesting the presence of freely reversible angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors. The solubilized 775 g sediment was applied to an immobilized captopril column, eluted successively with 20 mM Pi(K+), pH 7.8 buffer, buffer/0.5 M NaCl, and buffer/0.01M cysteine to obtain four major protein bands, two of which appeared with the cysteine eluant. The first two protein peaks were each pooled and subjected to ultrafiltration with 10,000 molecular weight cutoff filters. The pooled peaks, retentates and ultrafiltrates each inhibited the angiotensin-converting enzyme activity, suggesting the presence of large and small molecular weight reversible angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors in association with the solubilized (membranous) particulate angiotensin-converting enzyme fraction. These results expand upon earlier observations on the existence of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors in mammalian serum by observing an increasing angiotensin-converting enzyme activity with increasing dilution. This activity was eluted in multiple peaks, including elution with the cysteine eluate, suggesting that the angiotensin-converting enzyme, as well as other proteins, may react covalently with the sulfhydryl functional group of the immobilized captopril in a transsulfhydration reaction cleaving the disulfide bonds in proteins. Subsequent elution with cysteine affects an additional transsulfhydration reaction, releasing the proteins from the column. It is further postulated that air oxidation of the proteins permits reformation of disulfide bonds, yielding some active angiotensin-converting enzyme. Having in mind the possibility of lipophilic angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors crossing the blood-brain barrier as a means of treatment of alcohol abuse, the intriguing presence of a naturally occurring angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors in the particulate, lipid-rich fraction of the lung cell raises the theory that inhibitors such as these might cross the blood-brain barrier to serve as downregulators of alcohol consumption.

The action of the adenosine agonist, 5'-(N-ethylcarboxamido)-adenosine (NECA), at extracellular A2 receptors of guinea-pig and rabbit aortic rings was investigated. A near-maximum relaxant concentration (10(-5) M) of NECA was determined from cumulative concentration-response curves in aortae precontracted with noradrenaline. The effects of this concentration of NECA upon the noradrenaline-induced contractions were measured as the ratio of the contractions obtained before and, in the same tissue, after addition of NECA. This ratio was compared with the control ratio obtained in paired tissues after adding vehicle between the first and second contraction. The roles of intracellular Ca2+ mobilization and influx of extracellular Ca2+ were examined using normal Ca2+ and Ca(2+)-free media. In normal Ca2+ medium, where both sources of Ca2+ are involved in the contraction to noradrenaline, NECA inhibited the contractions. In Ca(2+)-free conditions, the phasic contraction to noradrenaline was mediated via the intracellular Ca2+ pool and was not inhibited by NECA. The contractions of the guinea-pig aorta to angiotensin II (10(-6) M) in both normal and Ca(2+)-free media, which are mediated via release of intracellular Ca2+, were also not inhibited by NECA. These results indicate that the activation of extracellular A2 adenosine receptors by NECA does not cause vasorelaxation by interfering with the release of intracellular Ca2+ by noradrenaline. The effects of NECA on contractions, due to influx of extracellular Ca2+, were examined in guinea-pig aortae in Ca(2+)-free medium and after exposure to angiotensin to deplete intracellular Ca2+ stores. Contractions were then induced by restoring the Ca2+ to the medium. These contractions were not inhibited by NECA, but when noradrenaline was present during the restoration of Ca2+, NECA was inhibitory. This and the evidence in normal Ca2+ medium, suggests that NECA causes vasorelaxation in the aorta by interfering with the Ca2+ influx via receptor-operated channels induced by noradrenaline.

The antispasmogenic effects of nicorandil on epicardial coronary artery vasoconstriction were compared with those of a K+ channel opener, cromakalim, and a nitrovasodilator, nitroglycerin, in open-chest dogs. Intracoronary administration of U46619 (0.5-1.0 micrograms), a stable thromboxane A2 analogue, reduced the external diameter of the left circumflex coronary artery with no marked alternations in systemic hemodynamics. This U46619-induced vasoconstriction of large epicardial coronary arteries was dose-dependently prevented by the intracoronary infusion of nicorandil (1-10 micrograms/kg/min), cromakalim (0.03 micrograms/kg/min) and nitroglycerin (1 micrograms/kg/min). After pretreatment with glibenclamide (3 mg/kg, i.v.), and ATP-sensitive K+ channel blocker, these effects of nicorandil and cromakalim were inhibited significantly, whereas the response to nitroglycerin remained unchanged. Nicorandil (3 micrograms/kg/min), cromakalim (0.03 micrograms/kg/min) and nitroglycerin (1 micrograms/kg/min) increased coronary blood flow. However, the inhibitory effects of each drug on the U46619-induced vasoconstriction were not influenced by the partial occlusion of the left circumflex coronary artery, which kept coronary blood flow constant. This indicates a direct antispasmogenic effect of K+ channel openers, which is independent of that mediated by the response to flow. Furthermore, our results suggest that, by this effect, nicorandil protects large coronary arteries from U46619-induced vasoconstriction.

Results obtained in the prevention of ventricular fibrillation secondary to myocardial ischaemia are unexpected. Profibrillatory properties might be manifested by Class I antiarrhythmic drugs, normally antifibrillatory. Clear antifibrillatory properties might be manifested by calcium channel blockers, the antifibrillatory effects of which are normally questionable. Therefore, the action of a Class I antiarrhythmic drug, flecainide, and of a calcium channel blocker, verapamil, on the vulnerability to ischaemic ventricular fibrillation was assessed in anaesthetized, open-chest pigs by ventricular fibrillation threshold. Ventricular fibrillation threshold was determined with trains of diastolic stimuli of 100 msec duration, delivered at a rate of 180 beats/min (near that of the ventricular tachycardia), by a subepicardial electrode inserted into the area that could be subjected to ischaemia. Before determining this threshold, ventricles were paced at the same rate, particularly during the ischaemic periods. Ischaemia was produced by complete occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery, either at its origin or half-way from it, over increasing periods. The monophasic action potential and conduction time were recorded in the ischaemic area. Before ischaemia, flecainide was adapted to rais the ventricular fibrillation threshold, in spite of a lengthening of the conduction time. Verapamil was devoid of any influence on these parameters. The antifibrillatory effect of flecainide disappeared with ischaemia, which reduced the ventricular fibrillation threshold down to near 0 mA, with triggering of the spontaneous fibrillation at this level: this reduction was no longer counteracted and even hastened by flecainide, becomes finally profibrillatory. Verapamil, on the contrary, delayed the fall in ventricular fibrillation threshold, maintained far from 0 mA, with prevention of fibrillation, unless the occlusion was maintained over a much longer period. Verapamil similarly delayed the shortening of the monophasic action potential duration and the lengthening of the conduction time, preceding fibrillation and leading to it. Consequently, ischaemic depolarization is apparently responsible for the loss of antifibrillatory activity in a sodium blocker, such as flecainide, and the development of antifibrillatory activity in a calcium blocker, since the sodium channel is activated only at high potentials, whereas the calcium channel is activated at lower potentials.

Anesthetized guinea-pigs were intravenously injected with Evans blue. After intracutaneous injection of agonists (lys-plasminogen, histamine, platelet-activating factor, thrombin, bradykinin), the resulting wheals appeared blue in a dose-dependent manner, due to an enhanced capillary permeability, alpha 1-Acid glycoprotein, given i.v. in different doses (3.125-50 mg/kg) and at different times (30-180 min) before Evans blue administration, antagonized the effects of all agonists listed above. This was shown by a parallel shift of the agonist dose-response curves to the right. The effect was time-dependent (tmax: mainly 120 min) and dose-dependent. alpha 1-Acid glycoprotein antagonized the agonists in the following order: lys-plasminogen > histamine = platelet-activating factor > thrombin > bradykinin. As all agonist mentioned are suggested to play a major role in the shock-related increase in vascular permeability, a putatively beneficial role of alpha1-acid glycoprotein in shock is discussed.

The effect of lidocaine on brain lipid peroxidation, as reflected by jugular vein malondialdehyde concentrations, and of polymorphonuclear leukocyte activation in peripheral venous blood samples following transient global cerebral ischemia, were studied. In normothermic dogs subjected to a 10 min elevation of cerebrospinal fluid pressure and a subsequent 60 min reperfusion, the malondialdehyde concentration during the first 3 min of reperfusion increased significantly (p < 0.05) in the jugular vein. Lidocaine (10 mg/kg, i.v.), administered 10 min before ischemia, not only prevented the elevation of the malondialdehyde concentrations during ischemia, but also provoked a significant transient decrease 10 min after the start of reperfusion. A 10 min ischemia and a 60 min reperfusion caused no significant changes in the polymorphonuclear leukocyte radical production, neither following ischemia nor after addition of lidocaine. These results suggest that lidocaine exerts a scavenging action on free radical processes but that it has no direct effect on the polymorphonuclear leukocyte activation in the early phase of reperfusion following ischemia.