Question

Hello. We picked clonidine and how it treats hypertension. Our focus is strictly on alpha-2 receptors and the detailed mechanism that leads to the lowering of blood pressure. Please help

Answer 1

Clonidine is a long acting antihypertensive medication used to treat high blood pressure.They are alpha agonist hypotensive agents which acts on the central nervous system and reducing the blood pressure.

When clonidine is taken it reaches the central nervous system .In the brain(medulla) it stimulate the sympathetic nervous system and impulse is passed in the alpha 2 receptor on the nerve terminal and inhibiting the release of norepinephrine (norepinephrine is responsible for constriction of blood vessels leading into heart rate causing increased blood pressure).This is termed to be sympatholytic.The prevention of release of norepinephrine from the receptor helps in controlling the high blood pressure.

In simple it reduces the outflow of sympathetic nervous system and this will decrease the resistance in the peripheral nervous system and thus reducing the blood pressure