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| Other names | Rosmariquinone |
| Routes of administration | Oral [1] |
| Drug class | GABAA receptor positive allosteric modulator; Anxiolytic |
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| Chemical and physical data | |
| Formula | C19H22O2 |
| Molar mass | 282.383 g·mol−1 |
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Miltirone, also known as rosmariquinone, is an alkaloid found in plants such as Salvia rosmarinus (rosemary) and Salvia miltiorrhiza (danshen, red sage, or Chinese sage). [2] [1] [3] It is a diterpene quinone, a group of compounds that are also known as tanshinones. [1]
The drug is a nonbenzodiazepine GABAA receptor positive allosteric modulator, binding to the benzodiazepine allosteric site of the receptor complex with a relatively low affinity (IC50 ) of 300 nM and acting as a partial agonist. [2] [1] [4] It was orally active in animals and produced anxiolytic-like effects, but in contrast to diazepam, did not produce acute muscle relaxant effects and did not cause dependence or withdrawal with chronic administration. [5] [2] [1] As a tanshinone, miltirone is structurally distinct from other known benzodiazepine receptor ligands. [1]
Miltirone was first described in the scientific literature by 1970. [6] It was isolated and described in red sage by 1970 [6] [1] and in rosemary by 1985. [3] The GABAA receptor potentiation of miltirone was described in 1991. [1] The drug was under formal pharmaceutical development by Abbott Laboratories for the treatment of anxiety disorders, but development was discontinued. [7]
Synthetic analogues of miltirone with greater potency as GABAA receptor positive allosteric modulators (e.g., affinity (IC50 = 50 nM or improved by 6-fold) have been developed and reported. [5] [8]