Dopamine receptor agonists: standard and non-standard applications in medicine

Abstract

Dopamine receptor agonists (DRA) are a class of therapeutic drugs able to directly stimulate dopaminergic receptors facilitating a stronger effect of the endogenous dopamine, which is widely used in treatment of diseases that are accompanied with dopaminergic neurotransmission deficiency. A classical hypodopaminergic condition is Parkinson’s disease and DRA are traditionally associated with it. However, even the first DRA, Bromocriptine, widely adopted in PD treatment, was initially registered as a medication for treatment of prolactinaemia and associated pituitary adenomas and is still widely used in gynecology and endocrinology. In several countries DRA are used in treatment of diabetes, eating disorders, and addictions. Dopamine is the cardinal neurotransmitter of the emotional control and the main neurotransmitter of the reward system, and that defines the interest for researching the dopaminergic agents in treatment of primarily mental illnesses, as well as correction of secondary affective disorders. The experimental effectiveness of ADR in slowing down the rate of progression of the neurodegenerative process in severe incurable diseases, as well as potential neuroprotection in cerebrovascular insufficiency, will allow in the future to determine the criteria for the use of ADR in these non-standard situations, which may even lead to a change in clinical recommendations for the treatment of individual nosologies. Presented in this article are both traditional uses of DRA and an overview of non-standard applications of this class of medications with a discussion of recent studies. In the future, the likelihood of a rethinking of ADRs as a class of only antiparkinsonian drugs, with the expansion of their therapeutic indications.