TY - JOUR
AR - NNB-2020-3-103
TI - Metabolomics of Rat Brain After Treatment with Phenelzine: High-Resolution Mass Spectrometric Demonstration of Increased Brain Levels of N-Acetyl Amino Acids
AU - Paul L. , Wood
AU - John E. , Cebak
AU - Glen B. , Baker
JO - Neurology and Neurobiology
PY - 2020
DA - Fri 24, Jul 2020
SN - 2613-7828
DO - http://dx.doi.org/10.31487/j.NNB.2020.03.03
UR - https://www.sciencerepository.org/metabolomics-of-rat-brain-after-treatment-with-phenelzine_NNB-2020-3-103 
KW - Phenelzine, rat brain, N-acetyl amino acids
AB - Background: Phenelzine (PLZ) is a non-specific monoamine oxidase inhibitor that has demonstrated
clinical efficacy in patients with treatment resistant depression. The mechanism of action with regard to this
efficacy is complicated in that its metabolite, β-phenylethylidenehydrazine (PEH), is an inhibitor of amino
acid transaminases resulting in dramatic brain elevations of GABA, alanine, ornithine and tyrosine. The full
neurochemical profile of PLZ and PEH remain to be explored.
Objective: To undertake a non-targeted metabolomics study of phenelzine on rat brain neurochemistry.
Methods: We undertook a high-resolution mass spectrometric metabolomics analysis of rat cortical brain
1 and 12 hours after intraperitoneal dosing with PLZ or PEH. Tandem mass spectrometry was utilized to
obtain relative quantitation data.
Results: N-acetyl amino acids were found to be elevated in cortical brain tissue following either PLZ or
PEH treatments.
Conclusions: Our data indicate PLZ treatment significantly augments brain levels of N-acetyl amino acids
and that this may involve inhibition of deacylases by PEH and/or induction of N-amino acid
acetyltransferases.