nifedipine brands

Molecular formula: C17H18N2O6

Nifedipine blocks voltage gated L-type calcium channels in vascular smooth muscle and myocardial cells. This blockage prevents the entry of calcium ions into cells during depolarization, reducing peripheral arterial vascular resistance and dilating coronary arteries. These actions reduce blood pressure and increase the supply of oxygen to the heart, alleviating angina. The principal physiologic action of nifedipine is to inhibit the transmembrane influx of extracellular calcium ions across the membranes of myocardial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells, without changing serum calcium concentrations. Calcium plays important roles in the excitation-contraction coupling processes of the heart and vascular smooth muscle cells and in the electrical discharge of the specialized conduction cells of the heart. The membranes of these cells contain numerous channels that carry a slow inward current and that are selective for calcium. Activation of these slow calcium channels contributes to the plateau phase (phase 2) of the action potential of cardiac and vascular smooth muscle cells. The exact mechanism whereby nifedipine inhibits calcium ion influx across the slow calcium channels is not known, but the drug is thought to inhibit ion-control gating mechanisms of the channel, deform the slow channel, and/or interfere with release of calcium from the sarcoplasmic reticulum. By inhibiting calcium influx, nifedipine inhibits the contractile processes of cardiac and vascular smooth muscle, thereby dilating the main coronary and systemic arteries. Nifedipine is a peripheral arterial vasodilator which acts directly on vascular smooth muscle. The binding of nifedipine to voltage-dependent and possibly receptor-operated channels in vascular smooth muscle results in an inhibition of calcium influx through these channels. Stores of intracellular calcium in vascular smooth muscle are limited and thus dependent upon the influx of extracellular calcium for contraction to occur. The reduction in calcium influx by nifedipine causes arterial vasodilation and decreased peripheral vascular resistance which results in reduced arterial blood pressure.

Source: PubChem (NCBI) · compound 4485