Abstract

ALVAREZ, Julio L.  and  VASSORT, Guy. Acciones celulares cardíacas de la quebrachidina, un alcaloide indólico aislado de Rauwolfia viridis Roem et Schult.. Rev Cubana Plant Med [online]. 2010, vol.15, n.3, pp.105-118. ISSN 1028-4796.

INTRODUCTION: the search for new drugs with safer therapeutic profiles in Cardiology is still a need and natural products, particularly from plants, constitute an excellent source of new compounds. OBJECTIVE: to study the cardiac cellular actions of quebrachidine an indole alkaloid, extracted from the roots of Rauwolfia viridis R et S, known as Quebrachidine, which is structurally related to the antiarrhythmics ajmaline and prajmaline. METHODS: several complementary experimental approaches to evaluate the effects of quebrachidine on the electrophysiological and contractile properties of cardiac tissues and cells were used. RESULTS: quebrachidine increased the ventricular fibrillation threshold in anaesthetized rabbits. It decreased the maximum rate of depolarization and increased the duration of the ventricular action potential in different species. These actions were accompanied by a positive inotropic effect over a broad concentration range and were consistent with the increase in Ca²⁺ currents recorded in single ventricular cardiomyocytes. CONCLUSIONS: the present results demonstrate that quebrachidine keeps the antiarrhythmic profile of ajmaline and prajmaline but also demonstrates a net positive inotropic action on cardiac tissues predictive of better therapeutic safety margin. Our results suggest that ajmalan-like molecular structures could provide a sound basis for the search of effective antiarrhythmics with positive inotropic effect.

Keywords : quebrachidine; ajmaline; prajmaline; indole alkaloids; Rauwolfia; antiarrhythmics; natural products.

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