Molecular mechanism of action of nicorandil

Nicorandil relaxes coronary vascular smooth muscle by stimulating guanylyl cyclase and increasing cyclic GMP (cGMP) levels (as shown first in our laboratory) as well as by a second mechanism resulting in activation of K+ channels and hyperpolarization. Therefore, we studied the relative contributions of either mechanism to the overall response in bovine circular strips of coronary arteries by simultaneously measuring changes in length and in cGMP levels through radioimmunoassay. Blockade by 10 microM methylene blue of the cGMP increases in strips precontracted by 1 microM of the thromboxane A2 analogue U46619 reduced nicorandil-induced relaxation to 30-50%, and there were no significant changes in cGMP levels. Suppression of the hyperpolarizing component of nicorandil by 80.4 mM K+ or 1 microM glibenclamide in precontracted strips reduced nicorandil relaxation to 50% (K+) or shifted the dose response to the right by a factor of two (glibenclamide) without alteration of increases in cGMP. A quantitative separation of both mechanisms of action was obtained by comparing the correlation between increases in cGMP and relaxation under conditions of inhibited versus noninhibited hyperpolarization. The results indicate that cGMP contributes to the total relaxing effect of nicorandil by 30-40% at low concentrations and 80-90% at high concentrations of nicorandil. From the experiments with glibenclamide, it can be concluded that the probable mechanism by which nicorandil hyperpolarizes is opening glibenclamide-sensitive K+ channels in coronary vascular smooth muscle and that this latter effect mimics those of other K+ channel openers such as cromakalim or pinacidil.