What is in your Pills?

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Do you ever take some meds and immediately wonder ”What the hell is this stuff even?!!”

As someone who doesn’t take a lot of pills, I think about this every time I take something new. Yes, I know that antibiotics kill bacteria, but how does this specific antibiotic work? My doctor usually doesn’t know it, so I tend to end up googling it myself.

Recently, my boyfriend brought something home that was prescribed to him to relieve his cough. But it wasn’t something to soothe the irritation, no, this drug was supposed to completely stop him from coughing for a while. Not something I encountered before that day, I must say. My mom only ever gave us chamomile tea, milk with honey, such stuff.

Intrigued, I looked it up online and the name of the drug lead me to the chemical Noscapine, also known as Narcotine, also known as (3S)-6,7-dimethoxy-3-[(5R)-4-methoxy-6-methyl-7,8-dihydro-5H-[1,3]dioxolo[4,5-g]isoquinolin-5-yl]-3H-2-benzofuran-1-one. I hate chemists and the whole IUPAC naming system (that’s the system that is responsible for those incredibly long names).

_{Public Domain}

Just as opium, it’s derived from the poppy Papaver somniferum. The kicker is, it’s not addictive or sedative, contrary to codeine (which I knew by name but never knew the effects. Now I do.).

In fact, noscapine has been in use for a while, they discovered that it’s good against a cough in 1930! One of the sources I linked below is a study from 1957 that analyzes the drug’s antitussive (= relieves or prevents cough) effects. It comes at no surprise that noscapine has been an oral drug for a while and is believed to be generally safe, at least as safe as medication can be. _{_{_{_{_{_{_{_{_{_{Hive account@suesa}}}}}}}}}}

_{By Louise Joly}¹

But how, how does it work?

Noscapine activates the so-called sigma opioid receptors, which are found in a high number in several parts of the brain, especially in neurons. So technically, this drug suppresses a cough in the brain. Isn’t that neat?

The receptors, although called “opioid receptors”, aren’t opioid receptors. Typical case of “we thought it works like this, gave it a name and now it turns out it’s not like this”. Still, there are several drugs that affect these receptors, including some antidepressants, cocaine, and methamphetamine.

And before you ask me, I couldn’t find anything about cocaine to treat a cough (although it has been used in medicine in the past), but it seems like they used to put heroin into cough syrup. Please don’t start taking heroin to treat your cough. It’s just not worth it.

In addition to helping you to not cough the whole night and keep everyone awake, noscapine might just help in our fight against cancer.

There are studies that suggest antineoplastic effects, which means the drug could inhibit, halt or even prevent the development of a tumor. It seems to be able to bind to tubulin, which inhibits mitosis and causes the tumor cells to die.

Tubulin? Mitosis? Those who are already familiar with those two words can skip the next 2 paragraphs.

When a cell wants to divide, it needs to first replicate its DNA to guarantee that both new cells have the same set of genes. After this replication happened, the two sets of DNA are separated into two nuclei. That process is called mitosis. After the mitosis, the cell usually splits into two new cells.

For the process of DNA separation to work, the cell needs several cellular mechanisms and tools. One of these tools are the microtubules, which are made from the protein tubulin. The microtubules generally help the cell to keep its structure and serve as some kind of “railroad” to transport vesicles which contain important substances. During mitosis, they form the mitotic spindle which is needed for the separation of the DNA. When noscapine binds to tubulin, it disrupts the formation of microtubules and thus inhibits mitosis.

_{By Lordjuppiter}²

In one study, noscapine increased the death of tumor cells during chemotherapy, which is promising.

In the end, it’s always interesting to check what exactly the drugs you’re taking do in your body, except for the obvious things. Depending on how much you liked this post, I might write something about other drugs in the future too. Leave me a suggestion if you want!