Ketanserin: a possible tool for studying the role of serotonin in hypertension

Ketanserin is a serotonin antagonist with high affinity for S2-serotonergic receptors, which mediate the vasoconstrictor effects of serotonin. It does not block the vasodilator effects of this monoamine, and it is devoid of agonist activity and serious central side effects. Ketanserin, however, also binds to alpha 1-adrenoceptors. The compound (10 mg i.v.) was given to 30 patients with essential hypertension and four normotensive patients with chronic autonomic failure, owing to an efferent sympathetic lesion. Ketanserin lowered systolic and diastolic arterial pressure by about 20%. The effects on cardiac output, cardiac filling pressures, forearm blood flow, renal blood flow, and glomerular filtration rate revealed a hemodynamic pattern compatible with dilatation of both resistance and capacitance vessels. These vasodilator effects were accompanied by moderate reflex stimulation of the heart. The drug did not alter the pressor effect of bolus injections of the alpha 1-adrenoceptor agonist phenylephrine, which contrasted with the competitive antagonism exerted by the alpha 1-adrenoceptor antagonist prazosin. Baroreflex-mediated bradycardia after phenylephrine also was not affected by ketanserin. The drug had a distinct hypotensive effect in patients with autonomic failure, despite the fact that these patients did not respond to the nonselective alpha-adrenoceptor antagonist phentolamine, 20 mg i.v. Thus, ketanserin is capable of lowering arterial pressure independently of alpha 1-adrenoceptor blockade. The results are therefore indirect evidence supporting a role of serotonin in hypertension.