A comparison between a melanocyte-stimulating hormone inhibitory factor (MIF-I) and substances known to activate central dopamine receptors.

The tripeptide, prolyl-leucyl glycine amide, a melanocyte-stimulating hormone inhibitory factor (MIF-I), which has been reported to be effective in improving symptoms of Parkinson's disease, has been compared with drugs known to activate dopamine receptors in rat and mouse brain. Unlike apomorphine, amphetamine and amantadine it was incapable of producing sterotyped behaviour in the rat and unlike 1-dopa it was also ineffective in rats pretreated with the monoamineoxidase inhibitor mebanazine. Neither did it potentiate apomorphine nor amphetamine in this test. MIF-I did not antagonise chlorpromazine-induced loss of locomotor activity in mice, an effect which was antagonised by apomorphine, amphetamine and amantadine. Chlorpromazine hypothermia in the mouse was antagonised by 1-dopa but not by MIF-I; similar findings were obtained in reserpine-pretreated mice. These results suggest that the reported beneficial effect of MIF-I in Parkinson's disease is unlikely to be due to an interaction with dopamine systems in the brain.