The World Health Organization's ATC classification organizes medical drugs based on therapeutic properties, chemical composition, and anatomy. It helps make essential medicines readily available globally and is widely used in the pharmaceutical industry.
| Level | Code | Title | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | C | Cardiovascular system | |
| 2 | C01 | Cardiac therapy | |
| 3 | C01C | Cardiac stimulants excl. cardiac glycosides | |
| 4 | C01CA | Adrenergic and dopaminergic agents | |
| 5 | C01CA18 | Octopamine |
| Active Ingredient | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Octopamine |
Octopamine is an organic chemical closely related to norepinephrine. In many types of invertebrates it functions as a neurotransmitter. Octopamine is known to exert adrenergic effects in mammals although specific octopamine receptors have been cloned only in invertebrates. It has been shown that octopamine can stimulate alpha(2)-adrenoceptors (ARs) in Chinese hamster ovary cells transfected with human alpha(2)-ARs. Octopamine stimulates lipolysis through beta(3)-rather than beta(1)-or beta(2)-AR activation in white adipocytes from different mammalian species. Octopamine activates only beta(3)-ARs and is devoid of alpha(2)-adrenergic agonism. Thus, octopamine could be considered as an endogenous selective beta(3)-AR agonist. In humans Octopamine is a trace amine found endogenously in the human brain where it interacts with signalling of catecholamines; it is structurally similar to synephrine and tyramine, being a metabolite of the latter (via dopamine β-hydroxylase) and substrate for the synthesis of the former (via phenethanolamine N-methyltransferase3) while being perhaps the closest in structure to noradrenaline. |
