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The number and the pharmacological activities of drugs featuring a guanidine group is actually amazing. Many synthetic guanidine derivatives have attracted pharmacologists in search of new antihypertensive drugs for their ability to block adrenergic nerve activity through central and/or peripheral mechanisms. As a result, compounds such as guanethidine, guanabenz, guanfacine, and pinacidil have been introduced in antihypertensive drug therapy. A crude methanol extract of the Venezuelan plant Verbesina caracasana Fries (Compositae), intravenously administered to mice, was found to induce biological effects such as erection of hair, initial stimulation and subsequent blockade of breathing. Biologically controlled purification yielded a series of active guanidine derivatives, namely G1-G7, which were extensively studied with the focus on the following items: (1) The structure determination of the active compounds by spectral data and a set of reactions; (2) The confirmation of the structures by a biogenetically oriented synthesis; (3) The study of the pharmacological profiles of the isolated drugs; (4) The synthesis of analogous and homologous products in the effort to shed some light on the structure-activity relationship. The metabolites of V. caracasana were characterized, in anesthetized rats, as hypotensive drugs of high (G2), mild (G1, G7) and low (G3,G5,G6) potency, devoid of consistent actions in heart rate, and provided with moderate stimulatory effects on cardiac inotropism and breathing (at selected non-toxic intravenous doses). Autonomic neurogenic components and/or peripheral adrenergic and cholinergic receptor-related pathways were involved in the cardiovascular effects. Synthetic analogs and homologs of G1 and G5 were all shown to be hypotensive drugs of low-mild potency, not affecting appreciably cardiac inotropism and/or breathing. The pharmacodynamic differences among the studied compounds were likely to depend on their ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, lipophilicity and pharmacokinetics. Since most of the compounds did not induce reflex tachycardia and depression of myocardial contractility as the majority of the antihypertensive drugs, they might be useful in the treatment of arterial hypertension of various genesis.

In previous experiments we have shown the role of nitric oxide (NO) in basal and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta)-induced CRH and ACTH release in vitro. Now, we have studied the possible production of NO from hypothalamic cell cultures, particularly after IL-1 beta stimulation or L-NOArg inhibition, by high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) assay of L-citrulline production, adding further evidence for a role of NO in IL-1 beta activity in the hypothalamus.

The effects of 1 microgram/mL of vanadium, given for 12 mo as sodium metavanadate in drinking water, on cardiovascular and biochemical indices of male rabbits were investigated. At the end of the exposure period, vanadium was more accumulated in bones and kidneys than in spleen and liver; the cardiac ventricles and the aorta contained similar amounts of this element. Blood pressure and heart rate were unchanged in the vanadate-exposed animals since the observed decrease of both cardiac inotropism and stroke volume was counteracted by an increase of peripheral vascular resistance, with reduction of arterial blood flow. The arterial levels of sodium, potassium and aldosterone were unmodified by vanadate which, however, strongly raised those of noradrenaline, adrenaline, L-DOPA, and dopamine. Vanadate caused a marked increase of the activity of monoamine oxidase in renal tubules and liver (probably in relation to the increased plasma catecholamine levels) and a reduction of that of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in the kidney. There was also evidence that vanadium reduces synthesis and/or release of nitric oxide, the endothelium-derived vasodilating factor, likely through a reduced formation from bradykinin. It was concluded that vanadium may represent an environmental factor of altered cardiovascular homeostasis.

Rats were exposed for ten months to 60 ppm of lead (Pb, as acetate) in drinking water to further assess cardiovascular effects of chronic Pb exposure. At the end of the treatment, mean blood Pb was 3.1+/-0.3 microg/dL in the control rats and 22.8+/-1.2 microg/dL in the Pb-exposed rats (means+/-SE, n=12 in each group); these values were not comparable to those of humans. Pb greatly increased plasma levels of noradrenaline (NA) and adrenaline (A), but not those of L-DOPA and dopamine; monoaminoxidase activity was augmented by Pb, mostly in the aorta and in the liver; the aorta, liver, heart and kidney showed discrete histopathological alterations in the Pb-exposed rats, in which plasma levels of nitric oxide (NO, determined as L-citrulline) were reduced. Pb was able to induce blood hypertension, resulting from increase of cardiac inotropism and, mostly, total peripheral resistance. These data were discussed also in relation to those obtained in our previous studies carried out in rats exposed to Pb in drinking water (15-60 ppm) for periods ranging from five to eighteen months. Pb appeared to increase both sympathetic nerve activity by central mechanisms (thus increasing plasma NA and A) and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)-dependent availability of calcium ions (Ca++) for contractile mechanisms in the vascular and cardiac myocells (also through an increased vascular alpha2- and myocardial beta1-adrenoreceptor reactivity). The reduction of plasma NO, contributing to increase vascular resistance and cardiac inotropism, was explained as a result of actions of Pb on enzyme activities concerned with the kallikrein-kinin (KK) and renin-angiotensin-aldosterone (RAA) systems. It was concluded that chronic Pb exposure is able to affect selective neuroendocrine (i.e., catecholamine), au- tacoidal (i.e., KK and RAA) and transductional pathways (i.e., cAMP, NO, Ca++) involved in the cardiovascular function.

Rats were exposed for 10 months to 60 ppm of Pb (as acetate) in drinking water. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure and cardiac inotropism were increased by the metal, which reduced arterial blood flow and unaffected heart rate. The activities of plasma angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) and kininase II were strongly augmented by Pb, suggesting markedly increased and decreased levels of plasma angiotensin II and bradykinin, respectively. Moreover, the Pb-exposed rats showed a lower increase of the plasma kallikrein and kininase I activities. These results are discussed in the context of the complex relationships linking the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone (RAA), kallikrein-kinin and other autacoidal, neurohumoral (e.g., catecholaminergic) and transductional systems (e.g., nitric oxide (NO)). Pb was confirmed to induce arterial hypertension and cardiovascular alterations at plasma levels similar to those observed in the general population or in subjects with short occupational exposure.

Bradykinin (BK) increased carotid blood flow (CBF) and jugular nitric oxide (NO) levels when administered into the common carotid artery of rabbits, and potentiated selectively, when infused together with histamine (HIST) or serotonin (5-HT), their effects on both CBF and jugular NO levels (but not vice versa). Such a potentiation was prevented and reversed only by nitroarginine or 1,10-phenanthroline (PHE) (which also reduced basal jugular NO levels) and did not involve the BK1 or BK2 receptors. Either HIST or 5-HT potentiated (likely involving the H1 and 5-HT2 receptors, respectively) the activating effect of BK on kininase I (K1), thus increasing the availability of l -arginine for the synthesis of NO. In patients with migraine, venous NO and K1 activity were higher during HIST desensitization than in basal conditions; moreover, HIST reduced the activities of prekallikrein (pre-KAL), kallikrein (KAL) and kininase II (K2) in the venous blood of these patients, in which the intensity of pain was related to the levels of plasma NO, and the administration into the humeral artery during circulatory arrest of BK alone (but not HIST) or BK and HIST together caused a strong pain attack. BK was confirmed to interact selectively with other autacoids in regulating systemic and local hemodynamics through the system of NO.

1. In the presence of atropine (1 microM) and guanethidine (5 microM), electrical field stimulation (EFS, 120 mA, 1 ms, 0.5-16.0 Hz, trains of 2 min) induced frequency-dependent relaxations of 5-hydroxytryptamine (3 microM)-precontracted longitudinal muscle strips from the rat gastric fundus. 2. L-Citrulline concentrations were measured in the incubation medium of precontracted strips before and after EFS to investigate nitric-oxide (NO) synthase activity and its possible relation to non-adrenergic non-cholinergic (NANC) relaxation. 3. Basal NO synthase activity was reflected by the finding of prestimulation levels of L-citrulline of approximately 30 nM. These levels were unaffected by tetrodotoxin (3 microM) and NG-nitro-D-arginine methyl ester (D-NAME, 100 microM), slightly reduced by a calcium-free medium and halved by NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME, 100 microM). 4. EFS evoked significant, frequency-dependent increases in bath levels of L-citrulline at all frequencies tested. The increases evoked by 16-Hz EFS were abolished by tetrodotoxin (3 microM), a calcium-free medium and L-NAME (100 microM) but not by D-NAME (100 microM). 5. L-NAME (0.1 microM-1.0 mM) produced significant reduction of 4-Hz EFS-induced L-citrulline production (100% inhibition at 10 microM), but had less marked effects on basal production (approximately 50% reduction at 100 microM) and 4-Hz EFS-induced NANC relaxation (approximately 50% reduction at 1 mM). 6. L-Arginine (1 mM), but not D-arginine (1 mM), increased basal L-citrulline levels and reversed the inhibitory effect of L-NAME (10 microM). 7. These findings represent clear biochemical evidence of both basal and EFS-stimulated NO synthase activity in the rat gastric fundus.

The effects of 1, 10, or 40 micrograms/ml of vanadium, given for six or seven months as sodium metavanadate in drinking water on cardiovascular and biochemical variables and the electrolyte metabolism of male Sprague-Dawley rats were investigated. At the end of the exposure period, all animals exposed to vanadate had increased systolic and diastolic blood pressure. This effect was not dose dependent and heart rate and cardiac inotropism were not affected. The role of defective renal function and electrolyte metabolism in such effects was supported, in the rats exposed to 10 and 40 ppm of vanadium, by the following changes: (a) decreased Na, + K(+)-ATPase activity in the distal tubules of nephrons; (b) increased urinary excretion of potassium; (c) increase in plasma renin activity and urinary kallikrein, kininase I, and kininase II activities; (d) increased plasma aldosterone (only in the rats treated with 10 ppm of vanadium). The alterations in the rats exposed to 1 ppm of vanadium were: (a) reduced urinary calcium excretion; (b) reduced urinary kallikrein activity; (c) reduced plasma aldosterone. These results suggest that blood hypertension in rats exposed to vanadate depends on specific mechanisms of renal toxicity related to the levels of exposure.

Male weanling Wistar rats received 200 micrograms/ml of mercury (Hg), as HgCl2, in drinking water for 180 days. At the end of the treatment, systemic arterial blood pressure was augmented, cardiac inotropism was reduced, and heart rate was unchanged. Light and electron microscopical studies of the kidney showed a mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis in about 80% of the glomeruli. Tubular cells showed reduction of the acid phosphatase activity, which was related to functional abnormalities of the lysosomes. In the 24 hour urine samples of the Hg exposed rats, there was slight reduction of kallikrein activity, but evident proteinuria was not present in all samples. Plasma renin activity was reduced, that of angiotensin I-converting enzyme was augmented, and plasma aldosterone concentrations were unchanged. Mercury was accumulated mostly in the kidney of the Hg treated animals; and the content of Hg in the heart was higher than in the brain. These data show that chronic exposure to Hg acts on the kidney with complex mechanisms of toxicity; these contribute to modify systemic haemodynamics.

After the isolation of caracasanamide and caracasandiamide, further hypotensive components of Verbesina caracasana were shown to be N3-prenylagmatine, N1-3',4'-dimethoxycinnamoylagmatine, agmatine and galegin (prenylguanidine). The structures were assigned on the basis of the spectral data of both metabolites and products from their alkaline hydrolyses. A pharmacological analysis of these products is also presented.