Epiboxidine is a chemical compound which acts as a partial agonist at neural nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, binding to both the α3β4 and the α4β2 subtypes. It was developed as a less toxic analogue of the potent frog-derived alkaloid epibatidine, which is around 200 times stronger than morphine as an analgesic but produces extremely dangerous toxic nicotinic side effects.
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Formula | C10H14N2O |
Molar mass | 178.235 g·mol−1 |
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Epiboxidine is around one-tenth as potent as epibatidine as an α4β2 agonist, but has around the same potency as an α3β4 agonist. It has only one-tenth of the analgesic power of epibatidine, but is also much less toxic.[1][2][3]
Despite its decreased potency and toxicity compared to epibatidine, epiboxidine itself is still too toxic to be developed as a drug for use in humans. It is used in scientific research[4] and as a parent compound to derive newer analogues which may be safer and have greater potential for clinical development.[5][6][7]