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  • Title: The benzodiazepine receptor ligand, methyl beta-carboline-3-carboxylate, is both sedative and proconvulsant in chicks.
    Author: Venault P, Prado de Carvalho L, Brown CL, Dodd RH, Rossier J, Chapouthier G.
    Journal: Life Sci; 1986 Sep 22; 39(12):1093-100. PubMed ID: 3018410.
    Abstract:
    Certain pharmacological properties of methyl beta-carboline-3-carboxylate (beta-CCM), a benzodiazepine receptor ligand, have been investigated in chicks. Although beta-CCM has been established previously as an "inverse agonist" of benzodiazepine receptors in rodents, having effects opposite to those of benzodiazepines in a variety of tests, in chicks this compound had a different pharmacological profile. Firstly, in contrast to the overt convulsant action of beta-CCM in other species, beta-CCM (0.05-40 mg/kg) did not produce convulsions by itself in chicks, but it was only proconvulsant. Secondly and most surprisingly, beta-CCM, like diazepam, produced in chicks a sedation which could be blocked by the benzodiazepine receptor antagonist Ro 15-1788. Thus it appears that beta-CCM can function both as an agonist and as an inverse agonist in this animal.
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