Abstract
Muramyl dipeptide increased sleep during the dark-phase, but not the light-phase of the rats' sleep-awake cycle. This circadian variation may be due to the inability of MDP to increase sleep over the high baseline levels of sleep that occur during the light-phase. However, MDP was pyrogenic during the light-phase, indicating it was pharmacologically, active. In the dark-phase, MDP was not pyrogenic, but when compared to concurrent vehicletreated rats, rats treated with MDP did not demonstrate as great a fall in body temperature. At approximately equisomnogenic doses, MDP produced less potentiation of ethanol-induced loss of righting reflex than triazolam, indicating it produces less non-specific central nervous system depressant effects. These data indicate the possibility of a new generation of hypnotic agents derived from muramyl peptides.
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Meltzer, L.T., Serpa, K.A. & Moos, W.H. Evaluation in rats of the somnogenic, pyrogenic, and central nervous system depressant effects of muramyl dipeptide. Psychopharmacology 99, 103–108 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00634462
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00634462