The article presents a short review of some of the properties of the acetylenic inhibitors of monoamine oxidase currently under investigation: clorgyline, (-)-deprenyl, pargyline and 5-508. Their substrate-selective inactivation, mechanism of inhibition, titration and pharmacology with respect to monoamine oxidase are critically discussed.In 1968, Johnston showed that the irreversible acetylenic inhibitor clorgyline (N-methyl-N-propargyl-3-(2,4-dich1orophenoxy)-propylamine) inhibited the oxidative deamination of 5-hydroxytryptamine by rat brain monoamine oxidase (MAO, monoamine 0,: oxidoreductase (flavine containing), EC 1.4.3.4) at concentrations that were much lower than were required for the inhibition of benzylamine oxidation (Johnston 1968). When tyramine was used as substrate, a biphasic pattern of inhibition was found. Such a result has been found for a number of tissues, including the rat liver (Hall et al 1969, see Fig. I). Johnston (1968) suggested that these results were due to the presence of two forms of monoamine oxidase, which are now generally termed MAO-A and -B, where the -A form is sensitive to inhibition by clorgyline, and the -B form more resistant to inhibition. This conclusion was reinforced by the introduction of the MAO-B selective inhibitor (-)-deprenyl (phenyl-isopropy I-methyl-propinylamine) (Knoll & Magyar 1972) and its more potent analogue 5-508 (N-methyl-N-propargyl-(I-indany1)-ammonium hydrochloride) (Knoll et a1 1978). The structures of the compounds are given in Fig. 2. In addition, a variety of agents, ranging from the tricyclic noradrenaline uptake inhibitors to local anaesthetics, have been found to inhibit M A 0 activity in a substrate-selective manner (for review, see Fowler et a1 1978).In this article, the most commonly used substrateselective inhibitors, the acetylenic inhibitors of which clorgyline and (-)-deprenyl are the most well known, have been reviewed with respect to their properties, since it has been these compounds that have provided the main impetus for research in MA0 over the last decade.
Substrate-specificity of monoamine oxidaseMost of the early studies with clorgyline and (-)-deprenyl were performed on either rat brain or liver, where it was shown that 5-hydroxytryptamine was the preferred substrate for MAO-A and benzylamine the preferred substrate for MAO-B, whilst tyramine was found to be deaminated by both enzyme forms (Johnston 1968; Hall et a1 1969). However, this substrate specificity is by no means universal. In Table I, the data published over the last ten years have been investigated in order to determine the frequency of occurrence of the metabolism of a given substrate by a given enzyme form. The 'common substrate' tyramine, for example, is in fact metabolized by both enzyme forms in only 29 out of 51 tissues (see Table I). Most of the possible combinations of the substrate specificities of the two forms of M A 0 have been reported. Some examples of 'unusual' combinations towards three of the most commonly used substrates are shown in Table 2...