Synonyms Ro 16-0154 PubChem CID 65959 ChEMBL CHEMBL2105020 | CAS Number 127985-21-1 ChemSpider 59362 Molar mass 407.29 g/mol | |
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UNII 7DVX185FLQI: B851121553 | ||
Iomazenil (also known as Ro16-0154, INN, USAN; benzodine) is an antagonist and partial inverse agonist of benzodiazepine and a potential treatment for alcohol abuse. The compound was introduced in 1989 by pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche as an Iodine-123-labelled SPECT tracer for imaging benzodiazepine receptors (GABAA receptors) in the brain. Iomazenil is an analogue of flumazenil (Ro15-1788).
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Use in brain research
123I-labelled iomazenil can be used to image epileptic seizure foci as an alternative to 18F-fludeoxyglucose PET imaging.
The effect of iomazenil of reducing levels of GABA in the brain was used by researchers to exacerbate symptoms in patients with schizophrenia in a laboratory study, supporting the theory that a GABA deficiency underlies that disease.
Alcohol treatment
Researcher Deepak D'Souza and colleagues at Yale University and Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System are testing iomazenil as a potential treatment for drunkenness due to its ability to bind alcohol receptors in the brain.