Cardiovascular and renal action of dopaminergic prodrugs.

Following an outline of the medicinal chemistry bases of the development of dopaminergic prodrugs, laboratory and clinical pharmacology of ibopamine, levodopa, gludopa, and TA-870 are reviewed. News experimental results are also reported for ibopamine and for the novel prodrug Sim 2055, i.e., epinine-4-O-phosphate. The latter is shown to act as a selective renal vasodilator on oral administration in dogs and it is therefore proposed for clinical investigation in renal failure and in essential hypertension