| Bioactivity | Nuciferine is an antagonist at 5-HT2A (IC50=478 nM), 5-HT2C (IC50=131 nM), and 5-HT2B (IC50=1 μM), an inverse agonist at 5-HT7 (IC50=150 nM), a partial agonist at D2 (EC50=64 nM), D5 (EC50=2.6 μM) and 5-HT6 (EC50=700 nM), an agonist at 5-HT1A (EC50=3.2 μM) and D4 (EC50=2 μM) receptor. | ||||||||||||
| Invitro | Nuciferine is a partial agonist at DD2 receptor with an activity (Emax=67% of dopamine) similar to aripiprazole (Emax=50% of dopamine). In line with its partial agonist activity, Nuciferine inhibited dopamine-induced activation of Gi with a potency similar to clozapine (Nuciferine KB=62 nM; Clozapine KB=20 nM) as determined via Schild regression analysis[1]. The natural product Nuciferine acts as an effective inhibitor of adult worm motility. Nuciferine is effective at inhibiting both basal and 5-HT evoked motility of adult schistosomes. Nuciferine inhibits Sm.5HTRL and schistosomule with 0.24±0.04 and 0.62±0.22 μM, respectively[2]. | ||||||||||||
| In Vivo | In rodent models relevant to antipsychotic drug action, Nuciferine blocks head-twitch responses and discriminative stimulus effects of a 5-HT2A agonist, substituted for clozapine discriminative stimulus, enhanced amphetamine induced locomotor activity, inhibited phencyclidine (PCP)-induced locomotor activity, and rescued PCP-induced disruption of prepulse inhibition without induction of catalepsy. In the presence of 1 or 3 mg/kg Nuciferine, cumulative PCP doses produce similar substitution to PCP alone. In the clozapine-trained animals, a dose-dependent substitution for 1.25 mg/kg clozapine is seen at 10 mg/kg Nuciferine (80.63% drug lever responding), with an ED50 value of 5.42 mg/kg (95% CI 3.09-9.48 mg/kg) while the lower doses tested (0.1 mg/kg-3 mg/kg) fails to produce substitution for clozapine’s discriminative cue. In addition to a high percentage of responding on the clozapine-appropriate lever, 10 mg/kg Nuciferine also produces significant rate suppression as compared to vehicle control points (p<0.001)[1]. | ||||||||||||
| Name | Nuciferine | ||||||||||||
| CAS | 475-83-2 | ||||||||||||
| Formula | C19H21NO2 | ||||||||||||
| Molar Mass | 295.38 | ||||||||||||
| Appearance | Solid | ||||||||||||
| Transport | Room temperature in continental US; may vary elsewhere. | ||||||||||||
| Storage |
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| Reference | [1]. Farrell MS, et al. In Vitro and In Vivo Characterization of the Alkaloid Nuciferine. PLoS One. 2016 Mar 10;11(3):e0150602. [2]. Chan JD, et al. Pharmacological profiling an abundantly expressed schistosome serotonergic GPCR identifies nuciferine as a potent antagonist. Int J Parasitol Drugs Drug Resist. 2016 Dec;6(3):364-370. |