Vasorelaxant action of N-p-nitrophenylmaleimide in the isolated rat mesenteric artery.

Cyclic imides, including maleimide, succinimide, glutarimide, phthalimide, naphthalimide, among others, are compounds which generally possess an imide ring and the group –CO–N(R)–CO– as part of the structure. Different and important biological properties have been attributed to these compounds, such as analgesic, antimicrobial, anticonvulsant, antitumour and antispasmodic activities (Cechinel-Filho et al., 2003). The attention to these compounds increased since the discovery of phyllanthimide, an alkaloid present in low concentration in the active aerial parts of Phyllanthus sellowianus (Tempesta et al., 1988). Using this compound as a model some of us synthesized a great number of compounds belonging to different sub-classes of cyclic imides and reported their biological effects in several experimental models (Cechinel-Filho et al., 2003). In a broad pharmacological screening performed in our laboratory with different cyclic imides, we verifi ed that N-p-nitrophenylmaleimide (4-NO2-NPM, Fig. 1) produced relaxant action in smooth muscles of isolated rat mesenteric superior rings. Previous studies have shown that this compound exhibits antifungal (Lima et al., 1999) and antibacterial (Prado et al., 2004) properties. The present study aimed to elucidate the action Vasorelaxant Action of N-p-Nitrophenylmaleimide in the Isolated Rat Mesenteric Artery Eurica A. N. Ribeiro*, Fabiola F. Furtado, Vânia F. Noldin, Rogerio Correa, Valtir Cechinel-Filho, and Isac A. de Medeiros