Mirapexin®/Sifrol® (pramipexole)

Mirapexin®/Sifrol® (pramipexole):
>five million patient-years of experience in Parkinson's disease

Mechanism of action

Nerve Cell Neurotransmitter Pramipexole Structural Formula

  • Mirapexin®/Sifrol® (pramipexole) is a full dopamine receptor agonist. It has high affinity for dopamine D2-like receptors with highest affinity at dopamine D2 and D3 receptors1,2
  • Mirapexin®/Sifrol® is a non-ergot dopamine agonist and differs from ergot dopamine agonists (such as pergolide and cabergoline) by virtue of its chemical structure and its receptor selectivity. Whereas studies have suggested that ergot-derived dopamine agonists can cause fibrotic reactions at the heart valve, no increased risk with the non-ergot dopamine agonists such as pramipexole has been seen.3
  • It has been suggested that the affinity of Mirapexin®/Sifrol® for D3 might be responsible for the antidepressant properties of this compound4

View references

  1. Piercey MF. Pharmacology of pramipexole, a dopamine D3-preferring agonist useful in treating Parkinson's disease. Clin Neuropharmacol 1998; 21(3): 141-151.
  2. Millan MJ et al. Differential actions of antiparkinson agents at multiple classes of monoaminergic receptor. I. A multivariate analysis of the binding profiles of 14 drugs at 21 native and cloned human receptor subtypes. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 2002; 303(2): 791-804.
  3. Andersohn F et al. Cardiac and noncardiac fibrotic reactions caused by ergot- and nonergot- derived dopamine agonists. Movement Disorders 2009; 24(1): 129-133.
  4. Maj J et al. The effect of repeated treatment with pramipexole on the central dopamine D3 system. J Neural Trans 2000; 107(12): 1369-1379.

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