Drug Design for Cardiovascular Therapeutics: Activation of DA1 Receptors

The therapeutic rationale for the utility of drugs to be designed to selectively stimulate DA receptors was that such agents would be selective vasodilators. Because DA receptors were known to mediate vasodilatation and were believed to have a selective distribution in vascular beds such as the renal vasculature, it followed that these drugs might reduce blood pressure or load on the heart without an equivalent decline in kidney blood flow or renal function (Hahn et al., 1982; Goldberg and Raijfer, 1985). Thus, potential therapeutic targets were hypertension, congestive heart failure and conditions associated with reduced renal blood flow and increased renal vascular resistance.