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Histamine and its receptor
PHAR3014 Medicinal Chemistry & Drug Design
More than one hundred years ago, histamine was discovered by Sir Henry Dale with his colleagues through the isolation of histamine from mould ergot. Several experiments were carried out to study its biological activity (Emanuel, 1999). It was found that histamine has a stimulant effect on smooth muscle in the gut and respiratory tract, caused vasodepression and stimulated cardiac contractility. On the latter study, it was demonstrated that histamine provide stimulant effect of the gastric acid secretion from stomach of dogs.




Figure 3 From left; Sir Henry Dale, Professor Heinz Schild, Sir James Black & Professor Jean-Charles Schwartz
Adapted from Emanuel (1999).
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