Lp. Dwoskin et Pa. Crooks, Competitive neuronal nicotinic receptor antagonists: A new direction for drug discovery, J PHARM EXP, 298(2), 2001, pp. 395-402
Citations number
60
Categorie Soggetti
Pharmacology & Toxicology
Journal title
JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY AND EXPERIMENTAL THERAPEUTICS
Neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors are distributed extensively thro
ughout the central and peripheral nervous systems. Currently, there is grea
t interest in determining the structural and functional diversity of these
receptors, and in developing subtype-selective agonists that have potential
as therapeutic agents for neuropathology and disease. However, relatively
little attention has been focused on the development of subtype-selective n
icotinic receptor antagonists. Such antagonists would be beneficial for est
ablishing the role of specific nicotinic receptor subtypes in physiological
function and for unraveling the complexities of neuronal nicotinic recepto
r function. Furthermore, these subtype-selective antagonists may also prove
to be beneficial in the treatment of neuropathology and disease. The curre
nt perspective summarizes the research that has been carried out with both
classical competitive antagonists and more recently developed competitive n
icotinic receptor antagonists.