REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1614865
Recent Progress in the Development of Etomidate Analogues
Provisionally accepted
- 1West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- 2West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
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Etomidate is a widely utilized anaesthetic agent for the induction of general anesthesia, recognized for its rapid onset and minimal hemodynamic suppression effects. However, its clinical application is constrained by several adverse effects, including adrenal cortex suppression, postoperative nausea and vomiting, and myoclonus. In recent years, there has been a growing global research focus on structural modifications of the etomidate molecule, aiming to simultaneously ameliorate its adverse effects and optimize its hemodynamic stability efficacy. Methoxycarbonyl-etomidate and carboetomidate are inhibited due to the accumulation of their metabolites. CPMM and ET-26HCI have entered the clinical trial stage, but there are still adverse reactions and challenges for the next phase of research. This comprehensive review systematically examines recent scientific advancements in this field, focusing on structural modifications, pharmacological properties, and clinical translation of these novel compounds.
Keywords: Etomidate, Etomidate analogues, CPMM, ET-26HCl, MOC-etomidate
Received: 22 Apr 2025; Accepted: 03 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Wu, Lang, Zhang and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shouming Chen, chen_shouming@scu.edu.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.