Cocaine is a local anesthesia and vasoconstrictor that is clinically used during diagnostic proceedures or during surgery in or through the nasal cavity. It comes in drugs called Goprelto and Numbrino which comes as a nasal spray. In these clinical drugs it takes the form of cocaine hydrochloride. The illicit drug has the same effects. It primarily acts on sensory neurons in the nasal cavity, but also inhibits dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine re-uptake channels. Cocaine inhibits the sodium-dependent noradrenaline channel which causes norepinephrine to accumulate in the synapse. The high concentration of norepinephrine readily activates both alpha adrenergic receptors in the smooth muscles of blood vessels. This, through the Gq signalling cascade, leads to vasoconstriction of blood vessels especially in the nose. This also causes higher heart rate and higher blood pressure, due to vasoconstriction, in the rest of the body as seen in the norepinephrine subpathway.

Cocaine Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor Pathway References