The Biochemistry of Epinephrine

The Biochemistry of Epinephrine

Introduction

Epinephrine is a neurotransmitter or a hormone. It is produced from norepinephrine. It has been studied from a biological as well as chemical perspective (Wikipedia, 2012). The purpose of Epinephrine is to raise the heart rate, control the blood vessels, participate in the many activities of the nervous system and dilate the air passages. In chemical terms, it is referred to as catecholamines and belongs to the group of monoamines. The neurons in the central nervous system of a human body are responsible for the production of epinephrine, which is commonly known as adrenaline. Other than that, the chromaffin cells also produce epinephrine along with tyrosine and amino acids phenylalanine (Richter, 2001).

Epinephrine was discovered back in the year 1895 by Napoleon Cybulski who was a renowned physiologist from Poland. The Polish physiologist found it was present in the form of an extract in the adrenal gland. Later, in the year 1900, epinephrine was discovered by two Japanese chemists named Jokichi Takamine and his assistant, Keizo Uenaka.

The chemical structure of Epinephrine is shown hereunder (Miesfeld, 2005).

The release of adrenalin is supposed to be a signal for the heart to pump harder. The blood pressure also increases as a consequence of it.

Epinephrine of the human body

The epinephrine has many functions in the human body. It signifies the level of stress and monitors the heart rate. In other words, it would not be wrong to say that epinephrine acts as a source of warning against a threat faced by the human body. These threats to the human body may be physical or even psychological. When epinephrine is secreted, the strength with which the heart contracts increases and this leads to a rise in the blood pressure (Richter, 2001). This is a response to the body's need for energy. The action time for the secretion of blood ranges from anywhere between a few seconds to two minutes.

For the human body, this has many uses other than signaling. It is used in the treatment of a number of diseases. These include superficial bleeding, heart attacks and anaphylaxis. This medical usage of epinephrine goes back ages when it was used for treatment of hypoglycemia and bronchospasm (Prohaska, 2007). These days, due to the advancements in the field of biochemistry, the epinephrine as well its derivates are used in many other treatments.

Cardiac arrest

When the output from the heart diminishes or when the heart completely stops giving output, the epinephrine is used as a drug for treatment of cardiac arrest and other major diseases. Its actions are to increase peripheral resistance via a receptor-dependent vasoconstriction and to increase cardiac output via its binding to ß receptors (Yamashima, 2003).

Anaphylaxis

Other than the established efficacy of epinephrine, epinephrine is used for other purposes also. For patients going through immunotherapy, the patient is given epinephrine to reduce the impact of the allergy. This is also used in the treatment of asthma. This is used as a method of treatment only when ß2 ...