H2 receptor antagonist

Common card · No. 323215

H2 antagonists, sometimes referred to as H2RAs and also called H2 blockers, are a class of medications that block the action of histamine at the histamine H2 receptors of the parietal cells in the stomach. This decreases the production of stomach acid. H2 antagonists can be used in the treatment of dyspepsia, peptic ulcers and gastroesophageal reflux disease. They have been surpassed by proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). The PPI omeprazole was found to be more effective at both healing and alleviating symptoms of ulcers and reflux oesophagitis than the H2 blockers ranitidine and cimetidine. H2 antagonists, which all end in "-tidine", are a type of antihistamine. In general usage, however, the term "antihistamine" typically refers to H1 antagonists, which relieve allergic reactions. Like the H1 antagonists, H2 antagonists function as inverse agonists rather than receptor antagonists (with the exception of burimamide), due to the constitutive activity of these receptors. The prototypical H2...

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