The potency of arecaidine propargyl ester (APE) and of several analogues containing a modified ester side chain has been assessed at M1 and M2 muscarinic receptor subtypes. APE was shown to act as a potent agonist at ganglionic M1 receptors in the pithed rat, at M2 receptors in guinea-pig isolated atria (-log EC50 = 8.22) and ileum (-log EC50 = 7.77). 2. The arecaidine 2-butynyl and 2-pentynyl esters were approximately equipotent with APE at M1 and M2 receptors, whereas the 2-hexynyl derivative was found to be less potent than APE in atria (-log EC50 = 6.80) and ileum (-log EC50 = 6.70) by about one order of magnitude. The 2-heptynyl and 3-phenyl propargyl esters exhibited no agonist actions in atria and ileum. 3. Shifting the triple bond from the 2 to the 3 position and introducing a bulky group at position 1 of the ester side chain of APE and analogues resulted in competitive antagonists (pA2 ranging from 4.9 to 7.3). 4. APE and its 2-butynyl analogue showed some agonistic selectivity for cardiac M2 receptors (potency ratio, ileum/atria = 2.8 and 4.6 respectively). All antagonists in this series of compounds were not selective in terms of affinity since their pA2 values at cardiac and ileal M2 receptors were similar (potency ratios, ileum/atria = 0.4 to 1.2).
