Studies on the mode of antagonism between adrenergic beta-mimetics and beta-blocking agents (II). Analysis by the...

Curves of experimentally plotted log (dose ratio-1) vs.-log [B] for the antagonism between adrenergic beta-mimetics, isoproterenol (ISO) and trimetoquinol (TMQ), and various beta-antagonists in relaxation of guinea-pig trachea could not be reasonably fitted to Schild's equation which has been commonly used in the analysis of drug-antagonism. Taking into consideration the saturable uptake process of the drug used herein, the equation presented in this paper fitted fairly well to the experimental curves and explains the following results: 1, TMQ was more strongly antagonized than ISO by all the blocking agents tested, that is, the apparent modes of antagonism were different between ISO and TMQ although they are considered to interact with the same receptor site. 2, The slope of the curve for a given antagonist markedly differed between ISO and TMQ. It is hypothesized that ISO is more easily taken up than TMQ. This was experimentally confirmed: i.e., ISO was potentiated about 8 fold by inhibiting the uptake process with dibenamine while TMQ was not. By pretreatment with dibenamine, the log (dose ratio-1) vs.-log [B] curve for the ISO-propranolol antagonism was shifted upward and superimposed with the theoretical curve of antagonism in which uptake of the agonist was neglected.