What is "nisoxetine"

n. A drug that inhibits the reuptake of norepinephrine (noradrenaline), originally researched as an antidepressant but not currently used in humans.

Nisoxetine, originally synthesized in the Lilly research laboratories during the early 1970s, is a potent and selective inhibitor for the reuptake of norepinephrine (noradrenaline) into synapses. It currently has no clinical applications in humans, although it was originally researched as an antidepressant. Nisoxetine is now widely used in scientific research as a standard selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. It has been used to research obesity and energy balance, and exerts some local analgesia effects.

Researchers have attempted to use a carbon- labeled form of nisoxetine for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of the norepinephrine transporter (NET), with little success. However, it seems that tritium labeled nisoxetine (H-nisoxetine, H-NIS) is a useful radioligand for labeling norepinephrine uptake sites in vitro, which nisoxetine and other antagonists for NET are able to inhibit.