While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style Copy Citation Share to social media Give Feedback External Websites Thank you for your feedbackOur editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
External WebsitesWhile every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style Copy Citation Share to social media External Websites Thank you for your feedbackOur editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
External WebsitesPresident, John Scarne Games, Inc., North Bergen, New Jersey. Authority on gambling. Author of Scarne's Complete Guide to Gambling; Scarne on Dice; and others.
John Scarne , John A. ThomasVice President for Academic Services; Professor of Pharmacology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Coauthor of Principles of Endocrine Pharmacology and others.
John A. Thomas • All Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Last Updated: Aug 3, 2024 • Article History Table of ContentsAsk the Chatbot a Question
Ask the Chatbot a Question
Smooth muscle, which is found primarily in the internal body organs and undergoes involuntary, often rhythmic contractions that are not dependent on outside nerve impulses, generally shows a broad sensitivity to drugs relative to striated muscle. Most of the drugs that stimulate or inhibit smooth muscle contraction do so by regulating the concentration of intracellular calcium, which is involved in initiating the process of contraction. But other intracellular messengers such as cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) are also involved (see the section Principles of drug action).
Drugs such as adrenoceptor agonists, muscarinic agonists, nitrates, and calcium channel blockers all affect smooth muscle. Hormones can also influence smooth muscle function. Apart from histamine, agents known to function as local hormones are prostanoids. Prostanoids (e.g., prostaglandins) and leukotrienes (a related group of lipids) are derived by enzymatic synthesis from one of three 20-carbon fatty acids, the most important being arachidonic acid. These substances are important especially in producing tissue responses to injury. Among their most important sites of action are bronchial and uterine smooth muscle. Leukotrienes, for example, are powerful bronchoconstrictors, and they are believed to be synthesized and released during asthmatic attacks. Some drugs for the treatment of asthma block the binding of leukotrienes to their receptor. For example, zileuton blocks the conversion of arachidonic acid to leukotrienes by inhibition of the enzyme 5-lipoxygenase.
Prostaglandins in minute amounts produce a broad range of physiological effects in almost every system of the body. Prostaglandins E1 and E2 are dilators, and prostaglandins of the F series are bronchoconstrictors. Prostaglandin E1 also dilates blood vessels, and it is sometimes administered by intravenous infusion to treat peripheral vascular disease. Most prostaglandins cause uterine contraction, and they are sometimes administered to initiate labour.
Ergot alkaloids are produced by a parasitic fungus that grows on cereal crops. Among the many biologically active constituents of ergot, ergotamine and ergonovine are the most important. The main effect of ergotamine is to constrict blood vessels, sometimes so severely as to cause gangrene of fingers and toes. Dihydroergotamine, a derivative, can be used in treating migraine. Ergonovine has much less effect on blood vessels but a stronger effect on the uterus. It can induce abortion, though not reliably. Its main use is to promote a strong uterine contraction immediately after labour, thus reducing the likelihood of bleeding.
Skeletal muscle contracts in response to electrical impulses that are conducted along motor nerve fibres originating in the brain or the spinal cord. The motor nerve fibres reach the muscle fibres at sites called motor end plates, which are located roughly in the middle of each muscle fibre and store vesicles of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (this meeting of nerve and muscle fibres is known as the neuromuscular junction). The contractile mechanism of skeletal muscles entails the binding of acetylcholine to nicotinic receptors on the membranes of muscle fibres. Acetylcholine binding causes ion channels to open and allows a local influx of positively charged ions into the muscle fibre, ultimately causing the muscle to contract. Because this mechanism is relatively insensitive to drug action, the most important group of drugs that affect the neuromuscular junction act on (1) acetylcholine release, (2) acetylcholine receptors, or (3) the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (which normally inactivates acetylcholine to terminate muscle fibre contraction).
Botulinum toxin causes neuromuscular paralysis by blocking acetylcholine release. There are a few drugs that facilitate acetylcholine release, including tetraethylammonium and 4-aminopyridine. They work by blocking potassium-selective channels in the nerve membrane, thereby prolonging the electrical impulse in the nerve terminal and increasing the amount of acetylcholine released. This can effectively restore transmission under certain conditions, but these drugs are not selective enough for their actions to be of much use therapeutically.
Neuromuscular blocking drugs act on acetylcholine receptors and fall into two distinct groups: nondepolarizing (competitive) and depolarizing blocking agents. Competitive neuromuscular blocking drugs act as antagonists at acetylcholine receptors, reducing the effectiveness of acetylcholine in generating an end-plate potential. When the amplitude of the end-plate potential falls below a critical level, it fails to initiate an impulse in the muscle fibre, and transmission is blocked. The most important competitive blocking drug is tubocurarine, which is the active constituent of curare, a drug with a long history and one of the first drugs whose action was analyzed in physiological terms. Claude Bernard, a 19th-century French physiologist, showed that curare causes paralysis by blocking transmission between nerve and muscle, without affecting nerve conduction or muscle contraction directly. Curare is a product of plants (mainly species of Chondodendron and Strychnos) that grow primarily in South America and has been used there for centuries as an arrow poison.
Tubocurarine has been used in anesthesia to produce the necessary level of muscle relaxation. It is given intravenously, and the paralysis lasts for about 20 minutes, although some muscle weakness remains for a few hours. After it has been given, artificial ventilation is necessary because breathing is paralyzed. Tubocurarine tends to lower blood pressure by blocking transmission at sympathetic ganglia, and, because it can release histamine in tissues, it also may cause constriction of the bronchi. Synthetic drugs are available that have fewer unwanted effects—for example, gallamine and pancuronium.
The action of competitive neuromuscular blocking drugs can be reversed by anticholinesterases, which inhibit the rapid destruction of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction and thus enhance its action on the muscle fibre. Normally this has little effect, but, in the presence of a competitive neuromuscular blocking agent, transmission can be restored. This provides a useful way to terminate paralysis produced by tubocurarine or similar drugs at the end of surgical procedures. Neostigmine often is used for this purpose, and an antimuscarinic drug is given simultaneously to prevent the parasympathetic effects that are enhanced when acetylcholine acts on muscarinic receptors.
Anticholinesterase drugs also are useful in treating myasthenia gravis, in which progressive neuromuscular paralysis occurs as a result of the formation of antibodies against the acetylcholine receptor protein. The number of functional receptors at the neuromuscular junction becomes reduced to the point where transmission fails. Anticholinesterase drugs are effective in this condition because they enhance the action of acetylcholine and enable transmission to occur in spite of the loss of receptors; they do not affect the underlying disease process. Neostigmine and pyridostigmine are the drugs most often used, because they appear to have a greater effect on neuromuscular transmission than on other cholinergic synapses, and this produces fewer unwanted side effects. The immune mechanism responsible for the inappropriate production of antibodies against the acetylcholine receptor is not well understood, but the process can be partly controlled by treatment with steroids or immunosuppressant drugs such as azathioprine.
Depolarizing neuromuscular blocking drugs, of which succinylcholine is an important example, act in a more complicated way than nondepolarizing, or competitive, agents. Succinylcholine has an action on the end plate similar to that of acetylcholine. When given systemically, it causes a sustained end-plate depolarization, which first stimulates muscle fibres throughout the body, causing generalized muscle twitching. Within a few seconds, however, the maintained depolarization causes the muscle fibres to become inexcitable and therefore unable to respond to nerve stimulation. The paralysis lasts for only a few minutes, because the drug is quickly inactivated by cholinesterase in the plasma. Succinylcholine often is used to produce paralysis quickly at the start of a surgical procedure (and then is supplemented later with a competitive blocking agent) or for brief procedures. It is used widely, despite a number of disadvantages. Generalized muscle aches are commonly experienced for a day or two after recovery. More seriously, a small proportion of people (about 1 in 3,000) have abnormal plasma cholinesterase and may remain paralyzed for a long time. Succinylcholine also causes the release of potassium ions from muscles and an increase in the concentration of potassium in the plasma. This happens particularly in patients with severe burns or trauma, in whom it can cause potentially dangerous cardiac disturbances. Another hazard is the development of malignant hyperthermia, a sudden rise in body temperature caused by increased tissue metabolism. This condition is very rare, but it is often fatal if not treated rapidly enough.
The autonomic nervous system controls the involuntary processes of the glands, large internal organs, cardiac muscle, and blood vessels. It is divided functionally and anatomically into the sympathetic and the parasympathetic systems, which are associated with the fight-or-flight response or with rest and energy conservation, respectively.
Modern pharmacological understanding of the autonomic nervous system emerged from several key insights made in the early 20th century. The first of these came in 1914, when British physiologist Sir Henry Dale suggested that acetylcholine was the neurotransmitter at the synapse between preganglionic and postganglionic sympathetic neurons and also at the ends of postganglionic parasympathetic nerves. (Preganglionic neurons originate in the central nervous system, whereas postganglionic neurons lie outside the central nervous system.) He showed that acetylcholine could produce many of the same effects as direct stimulation of parasympathetic nerves. Firm evidence that acetylcholine was in fact the neurotransmitter emerged in 1921, when German physiologist Otto Loewi discovered that stimulation of the autonomic nerves to the heart of a frog caused the release of a substance, later identified to be acetylcholine, which slowed the beat of a second heart perfused with fluid from the first. Similar direct evidence of the release of a sympathetic neurotransmitter, later shown to be norepinephrine (noradrenaline), was obtained by American physiologist Walter Cannon in 1921.
Both acetylcholine and norepinephrine act on more than one type of receptor. Dale found that two foreign substances, nicotine and muscarine, could each mimic some, but not all, of the parasympathetic effects of acetylcholine. Nicotine stimulates skeletal muscle and sympathetic ganglia cells. Muscarine, however, stimulates receptor sites located only at the junction between postganglionic parasympathetic neurons and the target organ. Muscarine slows the heart, increases the secretion of body fluids, and prepares the body for digestion. Dale therefore classified the many actions of acetylcholine into nicotinic effects and muscarinic effects. Drugs that influence the activity of acetylcholine, including atropine, scopolamine, and tubocuraine, are known as cholinergic drugs (see the section Drugs that affect skeletal muscle).
A similar analysis of the sympathetic effects of norepinephrine, epinephrine, and related drugs was carried out by American pharmacologist Raymond Ahlquist, who suggested that these agents acted on two principal receptors. A receptor that is activated by the neurotransmitter released by an adrenergic neuron is said to be an adrenoceptor. Ahlquist called the two kinds of adrenoceptor alpha (α) and beta (β). This theory was confirmed when Sir James Black developed a new type of drug that was selective for the β-adrenoceptor.
Both α-adrenoceptors and β-adrenoceptors are divided into subclasses: α1 and α2; β1, β2, and β3. These receptor subtypes were recognized by their responses to specific agonists and antagonists, which provided important leads for the development of new drugs. For example, salbutamol was discovered as a specific β2-adrenoceptor agonist. It is used to treat asthma and is a great improvement over its predecessor, isoproterenol; because the activity of isoproterenol is not specific, it acts on β1-adrenoceptors as well as β2-adrenoceptors, resulting in cardiac effects that are sometimes dangerous. Salbutamol and other agents that act on adrenoceptors, including albuterol, ephedrine, and imipramine, are known as adrenergic drugs.
