etifoxine

Description: Etifoxine (HOE-36801) and etafenoxine, is a non-benzodiazepine GABAergic anxiolytic and anticonvulsant drug developed by Hoechst in the 1960s, and sold in approximately 40 countries for anxiety disorders, without the sedation and ataxia associated with benzodiazepine drugs. Unlike benzodiazepines, etifoxine appears to produce its anxiolytic effects by binding to beta2 and beta3 subunits of the GABAA receptor complex, and so is acting at a different target site to benzodiazepines, although the physiological effect that is produced is similar to that of benzodiazepines.

References:

1. Marc Verleye, et al. Effects of etifoxine on ligand binding to GABA(A) receptors in rodents. Neurosci Res. 2002 Oct; 44(2):167-72.

2. Alain Hamon, et al. The modulatory effects of the anxiolytic etifoxine on GABA(A) receptors are mediated by the beta subunit. Neuropharmacology. 2003 Sep; 45(3):293-303.

3. Marc Verleye, et al. Differential effects of etifoxine on anxiety-like behaviour and convulsions in BALB/cByJ and C57BL/6J mice: any relation to overexpression of central GABAA receptor beta2 subunits? Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2011 Jun; 21(6):457-70.

4. Differential efficacy of the TSPO ligands etifoxine and XBD-173 in two rodent models of Multiple Sclerosis. Neuropharmacology. 2016 Sep; 108:229-37.

Related CAS #: 21715-46-8 (free) 56776-32-0 (HCl)