Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Aug;49(8):903-922.
doi: 10.1111/1440-1681.13678. Epub 2022 Jun 22.

Bromocriptine therapy: Review of mechanism of action, safety and tolerability

Faiza Naz  1 , Abdul Malik  2 , Muhammad Riaz  3 , Qaisar Mahmood  2   4 , Malik Hassan Mehmood  5 , Ghulam Rasool  3 , Zahed Mahmood  6 , Mazhar Abbas  7
Affiliations
Review

Bromocriptine therapy: Review of mechanism of action, safety and tolerability

Faiza Naz et al. Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol. 2022 Aug.

Abstract

Bromocriptine is a sympatholytic dopamine D2 receptor agonist with remarkable bioactivities. It has been used clinically as a prescription drug for more than 30 years to treat hyperprolactinemia associated conditions, Parkinson's disease, acromegaly, prolactinomas and other pituitary hormone dependent adenomas and recently, diabetes mellitus as well as various other disorders. Long-term treatment with bromocriptine has minimal or no harmful effects on renal, hepatic, cardiac or hematologic functions. This review article was planned to study the hypothetical and proposed mechanism of action as well as provide a brief discussion about its safety issues and tolerability. Bromocriptine represents an attractive option with high efficacy and safety profile for hyperprolactinemia-associated conditions, acromegaly, parkinsonism, type 2 diabetes mellitus and various other diseases in a variety of dosage forms for best possible beneficial effects. It appeared to be an effective and safe addition to the pharmacopoeia of drugs for the treatment of a vast variety of diseases as monotherapy or in combination with other drugs.

Keywords: T2DM; autoimmune diseases; bromocriptine; dopamine; neurological disorders; prolactin.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Van Weenen JDL, Parlevliet ET, Maechler P, et al. The dopamine receptor D2 agonist bromocriptine inhibits glucose-stimulated insulin secretion by direct activation of the α2-adrenergic receptors in beta cells. Biochem Pharmacol. 2010;79:1827-1836.
    1. DeFronzo RA. Bromocriptine: a sympatholytic, D2-dopamine agonist for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2011;34:789-794.
    1. Kvernmo T, Härtter S, Burger E. A review of the receptor-binding and pharmacokinetic properties of dopamine agonists. Clin Ther. 2006;28:1065-1078.
    1. Millan MJ, Maiofiss L, Cussac D, Audinot V, Boutin J-A, Newman-Tancredi A. Differential actions of antiparkinson agents at multiple classes of monoaminergic receptor. I. A multivariate analysis of the binding profiles of 14 drugs at 21 native and cloned human receptor subtypes. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2002;303:791-804.
    1. Shirasaki Y, Sugimura M, Sato T. Bromocriptine, an ergot alkaloid, inhibits excitatory amino acid release mediated by glutamate transporter reversal. Eur J Pharmacol. 2010;643:48-57.

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources