Histamine and related drugs

Histamine is an important chemical mediator involved in type I allergic diseases (such as ulticaria, allergic rhinitis and bronchial asthma) and digestive ulcers (such as gastric and duodenal ulcers). These diseases are very popular, and thus researches aimed to elucidate a series of events from the stimulation to the response in taget organs are worthwhile to develop potential and safe drugs against diseases mentioned above. The possible tagets for drug development with astham as an example involves the six points: (1)suppression of IgE production, (2)blockade of IgE binding to IgE receptors on mast cells, (3)inhibition of histidine deacarboxylase, a histamine-forming enzyme, (4)inhibition of histamine release from histamine-storing cells like mast cells and basophils, (5)blockade of binding of histamine to histamine receptors, and (6) antagonism of the reaction evoked by histamine in taget organs. The currently used drugs are disodium cromoglycate or theophylline, H1 blockers and adrenaline in points (4), (5) and (6), respectively, and steroid hormones. We reviewed and discussed our studies on histamine in relation to the series of events from stimulation to response. We also suggested possible newer tagets such as genetic control of expression of histidine decarboxylase in specific sites, H3 receptors and histamine N-methyltransferase.