The effects of amines on oxidations of the brain

Abstract

[beta]-phenylethylamine, [beta]-phenyl- [beta]-hydroxyethylamine, tyramine, indole, isoamylamine, and mescaline inhibited strongly the oxidation of glucose, Na lactate and Na pyruvate by the brain. They also inhibited the oxidation of Na glutamate but, with the exception of tyramine, they had little or no effect on the oxidation of Na succinate. Tyramine presents the only instance so far of an amine, or narcotic, affecting succinate oxidation at the concn. used. The effects of these amines are similar to, and are of the same order of magnitude as, those of typical narcotics, e.g., luminal, hyoscine, chloral. Neurine, cadaverine, putrescine, ethyl-amine, and histamine have relatively little effect on the oxidation by the brain of glucose, Na lactate or Na succinate. These results are of interest in connection with the study of mental disorder, for a disturbance in hepatic detoxicating mechanisms may lead to the circulation in the blood of more than ordinary quantities of the bases cited and this would be expected to lead ultimately to the production of psychological reactions similar to those met in anoxemia or in the early stages of narcosis.