1,4 dihydropyridines (e.g. nifedipine) undoubtedly are among the most powerful calcium antagonists. They act by blocking Ca channels when bound from the outside of the sarcolemma on a proteinic receptor (Glossmann et al. 1982). From inotropic measurements it had been supposed that a new dihydropyridine compound (BAY-K 8644, Methyl

Dihydropyridine-sensitive calcium channels can be strongly modulated by cAMP-dependent phosphorylation. This modulation takes the form of increased channel availability in cardiac myocytes (for review, see McDonald et al., 1994) and has been suggested to be essential for voltage-dependent facilitation in adrenal chromaffin cells (Artalejo et al., 1992) and skeletal muscle (Sculptoreanu et al., ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Hypertension has been associated with Parkinson's disease (PD), but data on antihypertensive drugs and PD are inconclusive. We aim to evaluate antihypertensive drugs for an association with PD in hypertensive patients. METHODS Hypertensive patients who were free of PD, dementia and stroke were recruited from 2005-2006 using Taiwan National Health Insurance Database. We ...

Breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP, ABCG2) is a recently identified member of the ATP-binding cassette family of cell surface transport proteins. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of a series of newly synthesized 1,4-dihydropyridines and pyridines, designed as potent P-glycoprotein inhibitors, on BCRP-mediated drug efflux both in vitro and in vivo. The effects of 25 synthes...