Cardiovascular effects of irindalone, a new S2-serotonergic antagonist, in the rat

Irindalone is a new antihypertensive agent with affinity to serotonin (5-HT2) receptors and at higher concentrations also to α1-adrenoceptors. The present study was designed to evaluate the relative importance of the antagonism of central and peripheral α1- and 5-HT2-receptors in the blood pressure lowering properties or irindalone after acute administration. In conscious Sprague-Dawley rats intravenous irindalone (0.05–1.5 mg/kg) dose-dependently reduced the blood pressure. In the same dose-range irindalone antagonized pressor responses to phenylephrine and electrical stimulation of the spinal sympathetic outflow (SNS) in the pithed rats, indicating that the acute blood pressure lowering effect is primarily related to the blockade of α1-adrenoceptors. However, the concomitant 5-HT2-receptor blockade may contribute since irindalone in a dose (0.15 mg/kg) where it had no α-adrenoceptor blocking properties enhanced the hypotensive response to selective a α1-adrenoceptor blockade by prazosin (1 μg/kg). We found no evidence that central mechanisms contributed to the blood pressure lowering effect of irindalone. In anaesthetized rats irindalone (1 mg/kg) did not reduce the directly recorded sympathetic nerve activity. Intracerebroventricular administration of irindalone in conscious rats (10–100 μg) had no consistent effects on the blood pressure and did not enhance the hypotensive response to intracerebroventricularly administered prazosin (10 μg). Finally, the hypotensive response to irindalone was not influenced by depletion of central serotonin stores (by PCPA). It is concluded that the blood pressure lowering effect of irindalone following acute administration is related primarily to blockade of peripheral α-adrenoceptors but that the concomitant blockade of 5-HT2-receptors may contribute.