Reduction of barbiturate anaesthesia by new glutarimide compounds in mice.

Newly synthesized glutarimide compounds (Table 1) at doses of 4, 8 and 16 mg/kg (IP) reduced the duration of sleep induced by pentobarbitone in mice. Compounds 1 to 7 and 21 were more potent than the other compounds and their activity was comparable to the reference drug, bemegride. The structure activity relationship for the decrease in duration of barbiturate anaesthesia caused by the various groups of these compounds was mainly found to be inversely related to the length of the alkyl side chain at position 4 of the beta carbon atom. It was also shown that the presence of piperidine, diethylamine and morpholine moieties attached to 3,5-dicyanoglutarimide was partly responsible for the reduction in barbiturate anaesthesia by these compounds.