HIOC is a

small-molecule Within the fields of molecular biology and pharmacology, a small molecule or micromolecule is a low molecular weight (≤ 1000 daltons) organic compound that may regulate a biological process, with a size on the order of 1 nm. Many drugs ar ...

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...

which acts as a selective TrkB receptor agonist (active at at least 100 nM; prominent activation at 500 nM). It was derived from N-acetylserotonin (NAS). Relative to NAS, HIOC possesses greater potency and a longer

half-life Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable at ...

(~30 min or less for NAS in rats, while HIOC is still detectable up to 24 hours after administration to mice; ~4 hour half-life for HIOC in mouse brain tissues). It is described as producing long-lasting activation of the TrkB receptor and downstream signaling kinases associated with the receptor. HIOC is systemically-active and is able to penetrate the blood-brain-barrier. In

animal studies Animal studies is a recently recognised field in which animals are studied in a variety of cross-disciplinary ways. Scholars who engage in animal studies may be formally trained in a number of diverse fields, including geography, art history, ant ...

, HIOC was found to robustly protect against glutamate-induced

excitotoxicity In excitotoxicity, nerve cells suffer damage or death when the levels of otherwise necessary and safe neurotransmitters such as glutamate become pathologically high, resulting in excessive stimulation of receptors. For example, when glutamate ...

, an action which was TrkB-dependent. A

chemical synthesis As a topic of chemistry, chemical synthesis (or combination) is the artificial execution of chemical reactions to obtain one or several products. This occurs by physical and chemical manipulations usually involving one or more reactions. In mod ...

of HIOC was published in 2015.

References

Carboxamides Tryptamines Neuroprotective agents Lactams TrkB agonists {{nervous-system-drug-stub

See also

References