[Alerting effect of vincamine in rats (author's transl)]

The alerting effect of vincamine, an indole alkaloid of Vinca minor, has been demonstrated using three electropharmacological tests: 1) the sleep-wakefulness cycle of freely moving rats implanted with cortical electrodes, 2) the sleep induced by 200 mg/kg i.v. sodium 4-hydroxy-butyrate (GHB) in the curarized rat, 3) the duration of spindle activity in the E.E.G. of curarized rats provoked by an acute asphyxia in which the E.E.G. activity was abolished for 20 sec. Vincamine increased the total duration of wakefulness at the expense of sleep, decreased the number of phases of paradoxical sleep (PS), increased the latency of the first phase of PS, but had no effects on the sleep-wakefulness cycle in a further test 24 hours after administration. Vincamine induced neither stereotyped behavior nor hypermotility. Vincamine also decreased the duration of GHB-induced sleep and the duration of post-asphyxic spindles. All effects observed were dose dependent. By means of these electropharmacological tests we have been able to discover two further agents which have more potent alerting effects than vincamine: desoxyvincaminamide and N-cyclopropyl-desoxyvincaminamide.