THE PHARMACOLOGY OF 3-PHENOXYPROPYLGUANIDINE

¹ Research Division, Parke, Davis & Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Phenoxypropylguanidine is a catecholamine releasing agent devoid of marked central nervous system properties. By virtue of such an action, it potentiates the pressor response to norepinephrine but impedes that to desoxyephedrine, tyramine or phenethylamine. It prevents or reverses reserpine-induced ptosis in mice and lowers blood pressure in perinephritic rats and in renal and neurogenic hypertensive dogs. The transmission of the efferent sympathetic nervous activity is apparently not directly influenced by the drug per se. In rats receiving phenoxypropylguanidine, there was a lowering of norepinephrine contents in the heart and the spleen but not in the brain and the adrenals. A comparative study was made of this drug, Su-4029, guanethidine and -methyl dopa on some of their pharmacologic properties.