Effects of raubasine stereoisomers on pre- and postsynaptic alpha-adrenoceptors in the rat vas deferens

The actions of raubasine, tetrahydroalstonine and akuammigine were studied on pre- and postsynaptic alpha-adrenoceptors of the rat vas deferens. These three drugs competitively antagonized the effect of noradrenaline on postsynaptic alpha-adrenoceptors, yielding pA2 values of 6.57, 4.56 and 4.68 respectively. The presynaptic alpha-adrenoceptor antagonist activity of the drugs was quantitatively determined by studying the effect of increasing concentrations on the clonidine dose-response curve in the electrically stimulated vas deferens. The inhibitory effect of clonidine could be competitively blocked by these three compounds and the pA2 values for raubasine, tetrahydroalstonine and akuammigine were 6.02, 7.71 and 5.64 respectively. These results indicate that: akuammigine is a very weak antagonist at pre- and postsynaptic sites; raubasine acts preferentially at postsynaptic sites; tetrahydroalstonine is a highly selective presynaptic alpha-adrenoceptor blocking agent. The ratio of the pre/postsynaptic potency declines in the order tetrahydroalstonine greater than akuammigine greater than raubasine.