Coronaridine congeners potentiate GABA
To determine whether ()-catharanthine induces sedative- or anxiolyticanxiogenic-like activity in male mice, proper animal paradigms were used. The results showed that ()-catharanthine induces sedative-like activity in the 63-72 mgKg dose range in a flumazenil-insensitive manner, but neither this effect nor anxiolyticanxiogenic-like activity was observed at lower doses. To determine the underlying molecular mechanism of the sedative-like activity, electrophysiological and radioligand binding experiments were performed with ()-catharanthine and (±)-18-methoxycoronaridine (±)-18-MC on GABA