IUBio

Bromocriptine and Blood Brain Barrier

Jeremy Gauntlett-Gilbert jg3 at st-and.ac.uk
Tue May 7 04:33:56 EST 1996


Laurie Davison (ldavison at ukcc.uky.edu) wrote:
: Actually, this was my concern and my reason for asking. I understand that 
: dopamine itself cannot pass the blood-brain barrier, which is why L-dopa 
: is used instead in Parkinson's patients. It concerned me that 
: bromocriptine may have a similar enough structure to dopamine that it 
: would not pass the barrier. I appreciate your responses!

:                                             -Laurie Davison-
one other thing that might be relevant to you in terms of the peripheral
effects of bromocriptine - it lowers prolactin levels (Leavitt, "Drugs
and Behaviour", 1995). so yes, it goes in , but may also have peripheral
effects.  

: >actually, many of the agents used in treating alzheimer's and parkinson's
: >disease are unable to cross the blood-brain barrier and must be
: >administered i.n. instead of i.v. in order for them to cross. any other
: >way besides intranasal adminstration <via the olfactory route> would
: >require invasive surgical techniques.
: >
: >chana shvonne williford <spike>
: >age 16 : walls1door at aol.com or walls at fly.net

I'm really not sure this is true, at least in terms of commonly used 
pharmacological agents. I work with plenty of Parkinson's patients, but
rarely see them snorting their medication :). And they don't take it
i.v., either. Most of them are on a cornucopia of pills, including 
levodopa, anticholinergics, mao-b inhibitors, etc. Check out Pearce JMS
"Parkinson's disease and its management" 1992, Oxford Medical (I think)
for a straightforward clinical introduction. Have fun,

Jeremy

-------------------------------------------------------
Jeremy Gauntlett-Gilbert
School of Psychology, 
University of St Andrews
St Andrews, Fife, 	tel:   (01334) 465000 x2034
KY16 9JU, Scotland   	email: jg3 at st-and.ac.uk




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