McIlwain H
Psychol Med. 1985 Feb;15(1):15-26. doi: 10.1017/s0033291700020894.
Ways in which chemical techniques could be applied to the understanding of neural systems, their functioning and their disorders were devised only gradually during the present century. In a particularly successful procedure, now termed assay-guided isolation, neural defects were made good by means of tissue-extracts and the restoration of function was established as an assay-system to guide the chemical separation and identification of the active tissue constituent. Thiamin was so isolated, using an experimental polyneuritis assay; subsequent instances among other metabolites, hormones, neurotransmitters and nerve growth factors are recounted. Procedures of assay-guided characterization ensured that links were retained between specific, sparsely-occurring substances and chosen aspects of their biological roles while their chemical nature was first explored and then established. The procedures discouraged the too-facile postulating of hypothetical molecules and contributed to the distinctiveness of neurochemistry as a subject within the neurosciences.
在本世纪，将化学技术应用于理解神经系统、其功能及紊乱情况的方法是逐步发展起来的。在一个特别成功的程序中，即现在所说的测定导向分离法，利用组织提取物修复神经缺陷，并将功能恢复确立为一种测定系统，以指导活性组织成分的化学分离和鉴定。硫胺素就是通过实验性多发性神经炎测定法这样分离出来的；随后还讲述了其他代谢物、激素、神经递质和神经生长因子的类似实例。测定导向表征程序确保了在首次探索并确定特定的、稀有的物质的化学性质时，能保持它们与所选择的生物学作用方面之间的联系。这些程序不鼓励轻易假定假设性分子，有助于神经化学作为神经科学中的一个学科的独特性。
