Scopolamine (Hyoscine)

Scopolamine is a high affinity (nM) muscarinic antagonist. 5-HT3 receptor-responses are reversibly inhibited by Scopolamine with an IC50 of 2.09 μM.

Application of Scopolamine to oocytes expressing 5-HT3 receptors does not elicit a response when applied alone, but causes a concentration-dependent inhibition of the response during a co-application of 2 μM 5-HT. The pIC50 value for Scopolamine is 5.68±0.05 (IC50=2.09 μM, n=6) with a Hill Slope of 1.06 ± 0.05. This gave a Kb of 3.23 μM. The same concentration-dependent effect is also seen when Scopolamine is applied during the 5-HT application. To further test for a competitive binding at the 5-HT3 receptor, the competition of unlabelled Scopolamine is measured with [3H]granisetron, an established high-affinity competitive antagonist at these receptors. Scopolamine displays concentration-dependent competition with 0.6 nM [3H]granisetron (~Kd), yielding an average pKi of 5.17±0.24 (Ki=6.76 μM, n=3)[1].

In the histopathology study, there is no significant change in the histology of the brain. However, it is observed that there is a reduction in density of cells in the hippocampus of the control mice pretreated with Scopolamine who received only distilled water[2]. Scopolamine administration alone significantly increases the activity of Acetylcholinesterase enzyme (AchE) (7.98±0.065; P

[1]. Lochner M, et al. The muscarinic antagonists Scopolamine and atropine are competitive antagonists at 5-HT3 receptors. Neuropharmacology. 2016 Sep;108:220-8. [2]. O ET, et al. COGNITIVE-ENHANCING PROPERTIES OF MORINDA LUCIDA (RUBIACEAE) AND PELTOPHORUM PTEROCARPUM (FABACEAE) IN SCOPOLAMINE-INDUCED AMNESIC MICE. Afr J Tradit Complement Altern Med. 2017 Mar 1;14(3):136-141. [3]. Pattanashetti LA, et al. Evaluation of neuroprotective effect of Quercetin with Donepezil in Scopolamine-induced amnesia in rats. Indian J Pharmacol. 2017 Jan-Feb;49(1):60-64.