Influence of nootropic drugs on the age-dependent potassium-coupling of transmitter release.

The potassium-induced dopamine release from rat striatum slices shows an age-dependent decline comparable to observations after hypoxia. Pretreatment of aged animals with antihypoxically active nootropic drugs for three weeks results in an improvement of the impaired transmitter release. Simultaneously the slope of the stimulus-release relation is increased and an age-related 50% decrease of the high affinity Ca(++)-ATPase activity (brain P2 fraction) is partially compensated. Like the antihypoxic effect, the effectiveness of nootropic drugs regarding age-dependent changes of neuronal functions probably will consist, above all, in vascular influences of the microcirculation, repair of phospholipids damaged by free radical triggered peroxidation and improvement of stimulus-release coupling.