When seven people received intravenous meperidine, a synthetic heroin analog, MPTP’s potency to be used in PD models was discovered by accident. L-dopa helped them recover from PD-related symptoms such akinetic stiffness. According to another research, systemic MPTP injection in mice and nonhuman primates resulted in a selective and permanent degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. The astrocyte-expressed MAO-B transforms MPTP, a highly lipophilic molecule that may pass the blood-brain barrier, into the hydrophilic metabolite 1-methyl-4-phenyl-pyridinium (MPP+).
Learn more: mptp model of parkinson’s disease
