Dexmedetomidine is a highly specific alpha2-adrenergic agonist, which is used clinically as an anesthetic adjuvant and in animal experiments has a neuroprotective effect during ischemia. The current study showed that dexmedetomidine enhances glutamine disposal by oxidative metabolism in astrocytes. This effect occurs at pharmacologically relevant concentrations. It is exerted on alpha2-adrenergic receptors and not on imidazoline-preferring sites, and it is large enough to reduce the availability of glutamine as a precursor of neurotoxic glutamate.
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Huang et al. (2000) studied this question.
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