Cotinine

Cotinine is an alkaloid found in tobacco and is also the predominant metabolite of nicotine, typically used as a biomarker for exposure to tobacco smoke. Cotinine is currently being studied as a treatment for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Cotinine was developed as an antidepressant as a fumaric acid salt, cotinine fumarate, to be sold under the brand name Scotine, but it was never marketed.

Not to be confused with cotinin.

Cotinine
Clinical data
Routes of
administration		Oral, Smoked, Insufflation
ATC code
  • none
Legal status
Legal status
  • In general: ℞ (Prescription only)
Pharmacokinetic data
Elimination half-life20 hours
Identifiers
  • (5S)-1-methyl-5-(3-pyridyl)pyrrolidin-2-one
CAS Number
PubChem CID
ChemSpider
UNII
ChEMBL
CompTox Dashboard (EPA)
ECHA InfoCard100.006.941
Chemical and physical data
FormulaC10H12N2O
Molar mass176.219 g·mol−1
3D model (JSmol)
  • O=C2N(C)[C@H](c1cnccc1)CC2
  • InChI=1S/C10H12N2O/c1-12-9(4-5-10(12)13)8-3-2-6-11-7-8/h2-3,6-7,9H,4-5H2,1H3/t9-/m0/s1 Y
  • Key:UIKROCXWUNQSPJ-VIFPVBQESA-N Y
  (verify)

Similarly to nicotine, cotinine binds to, activates, and desensitizes neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, though at much lower potency in comparison. It has demonstrated nootropic and antipsychotic-like effects in animal models. Cotinine treatment has also been shown to reduce depression, anxiety, and fear-related behavior as well as memory impairment in animal models of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and Alzheimer's disease. Nonetheless, treatment with cotinine in humans was reported to have no significant physiologic, subjective, or performance effects in one study, though others suggest that this may not be the case.

Because cotinine is the main metabolite to nicotine and has been shown to be pharmacologically active, it has been suggested that some of nicotine's effects in the nervous system may be mediated by cotinine and/or complex interactions with nicotine itself.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.