Repositioning Candidate Details
| Candidate ID: | R1305 |
| Source ID: | DB09363 |
| Source Type: | investigational |
| Compound Type: | small molecule |
| Compound Name: | Rauwolfia serpentina root |
| Synonyms: | Alkaloids, rauwolfia; Alseroxylon; Rauvolfia serpentina root; Rauwolfia; Rauwolfia alkaloids; Rauwolfia root; Rauwolfia serpentina; Rauwolfia serpentina alseroxylon; Snakeroot |
| Molecular Formula: | -- |
| SMILES: | -- |
| DrugBank Description: | Rauwolfia (Rauwolfia serpentina), also spelled _ravolphia_, is a medicinal plant in the milkweed family. The root of the plant is ground into a powder or sold in tablets or capsules. It is a compound commonly used in Asian medicine, which includes traditional Ayurvedic medicine native to India. The active ingredients in this drug are alkaloids and about 50 have been identified through various studies, although the primary psychoactive components appear to be reserpine, rescinnamine, and deserpidine . This product was approved prior to Jan 1, 1982, but since, has been discontinued due to its propensity for leading to depression . Reserpine is derived from Rauwolfia serpentina, and was commonly used as an antihypertensive agent in the 1950s . Rauwolfia serpentina is also commonly referred to as _Sarpaghanda_ . Interestingly, the hairy root component of this plant has shown a remarkable capacity to regenerate into complete Rauwolfia plants and shows survival and unaltered biosynthetic potential during storage at decreased temperatures. For this reason, various studies into biotechnological applications of this plant have been performed. Multiple studies have been done on their biosynthetic potential and numerous biotechnological methods used to study the production of pharmaceutically important alkaloids . |
| CAS Number: | 8063-17-0 |
| Molecular Weight: | |
| DrugBank Indication: | Rauwolfia alkaloids are indicated in the treatment of hypertension . Rauwolfia alkaloids have been used for relief of symptoms in agitated psychotic states such as schizophrenia; however, use as antipsychotics and sedatives have been replaced with the use of more effective, safer agents . |
| DrugBank Pharmacology: | Reserpine is used to treat high blood pressure. It also is used to treat severe agitation in patients with mental disorders. Reserpine is in a class of medications called rauwolfia alkaloids. It works by slowing the activity of the nervous system, causing the heart rate to slow and the blood vessels to dilate . |
| DrugBank MoA: | Reserpine is an adrenergic blocking agent used to treat mild to moderate hypertension via the disruption of norepinephrine vesicular storage. The antihypertensive actions of Reserpine are a result of its ability to deplete catecholamines from peripheral sympathetic nerve endings. These substances are normally involved in controlling heart rate, the work of cardiac contraction and peripheral resistance . Reserpine depletes brain (depression) and peripheral (PPH) noradrenaline (NA) storage sites, guanethidine depleted NA storage via blockade of reuptake . This agent binds and inhibits catecholamine pump on the storage vesicles in central and peripheral adrenergic neurons, thereby inhibiting the uptake of norepinephrine, dopamine serotonin into presynaptic storage vesicles. This results in catecholamines and serotonin lingering in the cytoplasm where they are destroyed by intraneuronal monoamine oxidase, thereby causing the depletion of catecholamine and serotonin stores in central and peripheral nerve terminals. Depletion results in a lack of active transmitter discharge from nerve endings upon nerve depolarization, and consequently leads to a decreased heart rate and decreased arterial blood pressure as well as sedative effects . |
| Targets: | Synaptic vesicular amine transporter inhibitor |
| Inclusion Criteria: | Therapeutic strategy associated |
| Strategy ID | Strategy | Synonyms | Related Targets | Related Drugs |
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| Target ID | Target Name | GENE | Action | Class | UniProtKB ID | Entry Name |
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| Diseases ID | DO ID | Disease Name | Definition | Class | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I17 | 1596 | Mental depression | Mental depression | disease of mental health/ cognitive disorder/ mood disorder | Details |
| I12 | 10763 | Hypertension | An artery disease characterized by chronic elevated blood pressure in the arteries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertension, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24352797 | disease of anatomical entity/ cardiovascular system disease/vascular disease/ artery disease | Details |