Kajita M, Niwa T, Maruyama W, Nakahara D, Takeda N, Yoshizumi H, Tatematsu A, Watanabe K, Naoi M, Nagatsu T
Department of Pediatrics, Nagoya University School of Medicine, Japan.
J Chromatogr B Biomed Appl. 1994 Apr 1;654(2):263-9. doi: 10.1016/0378-4347(94)00019-0.
The in vivo metabolic pathway for the synthesis of N-methylnorsalsolinol, an analogue of 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP), was studied in the rat brain. N-Methyldopamine (epinine) was perfused at the striatum of the rat brain by in vivo microdialysis. N-Methylnorsalsolinol (NMNSAL) was identified in the brain dialysate after epinine perfusion using gas chromatography-selected-ion monitoring mass spectrometry (GC-SIM-MS). We demonstrated that NMNSAL could be synthesized from epinine with an aldehyde by the Piclet-Spengler condensation reaction in the rat brain.