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Previous work has shown that inhibitors of the predominantly vascular enzyme semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidase (SSAO) potentiate the hypotensive response to hydralazine, itself a SSAO inhibitor, in anesthetized rats. The present study was carried out to determine whether the recently described suicide SSAO inhibitor 2-bromoethylamine shares this effect. Hypotensive responses to hydralazine, 0.1 mg/kg IV, were obtained in chloralose-urethane-anesthetized rats, either unpretreated or receiving bromoethylamine at different doses and pretreatment intervals. Parallel experiments were run with semicarbazide, the prototypical hydrazine SSAO inhibitor. Both inhibitors potentiated hydralazine hypotension, bromoethylamine having a longer latency and a shorter duration of action than semicarbazide. High doses of bromoethylamine did not produce potentiation, a phenomenon attributed to SSAO inactivation by excess substrate and decreased formation by the enzyme of the inhibitor product. Experiments with combined administration of both inhibitors were also carried out. When semicarbazide was administered before bromoethylamine, potentiaton was prevented, apparently by a mechanism similar to the above; when it was given after the amine, potentiation was increased. This was attributed to enzyme inhibition by interaction with 2 different active sites. The charactertistics of hydralazine potentiation by bromoethylamine were considered compatible with the mechanism of SSAO inhibition by the amine.

The influence of in vivo administration of isoniazid on the relaxant effect of isosorbide dinitrate was determined by pretreating rats with various doses of isoniazid and obtaining concentration-response curves to isosorbide dinitrate in aortic rings from these animals. In rings with endothelium, isoniazid potentiated responses to isosorbide dinitrate at doses of 10, 30, and 100 mg/kg; 3 and 300 mg/kg were without effect. In endothelium-denuded preparations, potentiation was present only at 10 mg/kg; 3 and 300 mg/kg inhibited relaxation. Other experiments indicated that isoniazid potentiation was prevented by pyridoxine, was reproduced with theophylline, and did not occur with 3-morpholinosydnonimine or papaverine. These results were deemed compatible with the hypothesis that isoniazid inhibits transsulfuration of homocysteine and causes its accumulation in vascular smooth muscle and endothelial cells, where it functions as a thiol intermediate and leads to enhanced bioactivation of isosorbide dinitrate. Potentiation appeared to occur only with moderate increases of homocysteine.

The effects of the stereochemically pure psychoactive cannabinoid (-)-11-OH-delta 8-tetrahydrocannabinol-dimethylheptyl (HU-210) on blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) were determined in rats. In pentobarbital-anesthetized animals, the compound produced dose-related, long-lasting hypotension and bradycardia at doses between 10 and 1,000 micrograms/kg. BP began to decrease immediately after drug administration, and in no case was an initial pressor response observed. Previous vagotomy (VX) or pretreatment with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) did not affect hypotension. Bradycardia was inhibited by VX, but only 60 min after administration of HU-210; it was enhanced by 6-OHDA. The cannabinoid blocked reflex bradycardia induced by phenylephrine (PE). HU-210 also decreased BP and HR in conscious rats. Hypotension lasted 2 h, whereas bradycardia was still present 8 h after drug administration. HU-210 thus shares with delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) the ability to decrease BP and HR, but is 5-10 times more potent than the natural compound. Its lack of an initial pressor effect, such as that described for THC, could be related to its specificity for the type-1 cannabinoid (CB1) receptor. Hypotension and bradycardia after HU-210 administration are not due to sympathetic withdrawal. Enhanced parasympathetic tone is involved in bradycardia only at a late stage of the response.

The mechanism by which the antihypertensive vasodilator hydralazine relaxes vascular smooth muscle is unknown. The drug interacts with pyridoxal and can produce B6 deficiency; it also inhibits a number of enzymes requiring pyridoxal as a cofactor, but there is no apparent relation between its enzymatic and blood pressure effects. To explore the possibility of a hydralazine-pyridoxal interaction at a nonenzymatic site, the acute hypotensive response to hydralazine was determined by tail cuff blood pressure (BP) measurements in conscious normotensive rats pretreated or not pretreated with pyridoxine. Other animals were pretreated with isoniazid, a drug also capable of reacting with pyridoxal. Responses to hydralazine were diminished by pyridoxine and enhanced by isoniazid; those to the vasodilator diazoxide or to the alpha-adrenergic blocker zolertine were unaffected by such pretreatments. The inhibitory effect of pyridoxine was absent when rats were pretreated with the calcium antagonists verapamil or cinnarizine. Hydralazine hypotension in anesthetized rats was also reduced by pyridoxal pretreatment. These results suggest that at least part of hydralazine-induced hypotension may be related to interaction with pyridoxal, possibly through interference with an effect of the vitamer on calcium and/or sodium transport into vascular smooth muscle.

In view of the conflicting reports of both constrictor and dilator effects of serotonin on the external carotid vascular bed of dogs, the influence of intraarterial infusions of the amine on blood flow through this territory was assessed by electromagnetic flowmeter techniques. In anesthetized intact dogs, serotonin produced dose-related increases in flow. These vasodilator responses were markedly diminished after ipsilateral vagotomy and were followed by delayed vasoconstriction, which then became the predominant response. Pretreatment with atropine did not modify dilator responses, while resection of the ipsilateral stellate ganglion reversed them to pure constriction. In the internal carotid, serotonin elicited constriction, and this effect was unaffected by vagotomy. These results were interpreted in terms of the hypothesis relating serotonin reactivity to vascular tone. The amine would elicit dilatation through an effect on tonically constricted small vessels. Removal of this tone by section of the vagosympathetic trunk or stellectomy would unmask the constrictor effect of serotonin on large vessels. Such reversal of responses would not occur in the internal carotid, a territory normally devoid of important sympathetic tone.

Methamphetamine is one of a group of sympathomimetic amines that lower blood pressure upon chronic administration to hypertensive dogs. To determine whether tolerance to the cardiovascular effects of these drugs could play a role in their antihypertensive action, acute blood pressure responses to oral d-methamphetamine were determined in trained conscious renal hypertensive dogs at weekly intervals during treatment with the drug for 2 months. Responses were also obtained in similarly treated normotensive dogs and in normotensive and hypertensive animals receiving l-methamphetamine. Pressor responses to d-methamphetamine in hypertensive dogs remained unchanged throughout treatment, while in all other cases they diminished gradually. Only the dextro isomer reduced blood pressure chronically in the hypertensive group. It was concluded that tolerance is not involved in the antihypertensive effect of methamphetamine and that, considering the stereo specificity of this effect, residual lowering of blood pressure might involve formation of a false mediator metabolite of the amine.