Flash Card: How Caffeine Keeps You Awake

Welcome to Flash Cards! These short features give you basic information about a therapeutic mechanism or core concept.

Caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive drug in the world. Its stimulant effects are the culmination of a complex profile involving potentiation of adrenergic and dopaminergic signaling. However, the principal MOA involves inhibition of the actions of the endogenous sedative, adenosine.

Inhibitory potency at the adenosine receptor is dependent on the rate of caffeine metabolism, and the efficacy of inhibition is modified by genetic polymorphisms in adenosine receptors. These explain much of the variability in inter-individual sensitivity and variable responses to this common stimulant.

References

Pharmacogenomics Knowledge Base: PharmGKB summary: caffeine pathway. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3381939/