MAOIs —monoamine oxidase inhibitors

The monoaminergic systems are the target of several drugs for the treatment of mood, motor and cognitive disorders as well as neurological conditions. In most cases, advances have occurred through serendipity, except for Parkinson's disease where the pathophysiology led almost immediately to the introduction of dopamine restoring agents. Extensive neuropharmacological studies first showed that the primary target of antipsychotics, antidepressants, and anxiolytic drugs were specific components of the monoaminergic systems...

Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) are often ingested together with tryptamine hallucinogens, but relatively little is known about the consequences of their combined use. We have shown previously that monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A) inhibitors alter the locomotor profile of the hallucinogen 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) in rats, and enhance its interaction with 5-HT2A receptors. The goal of the present studies was to investigate the mechanism for the interaction between 5-MeO-DMT and MAOIs, and to determine whether other behavioral responses to 5-MeO-DMT are similarly affected...

INTRODUCTION: Although safer and easier to use antidepressants (ie.,SSRIs/SNRIs) have largely displaced MAOIs, these medications still have a role in difficult to treat conditions. Efforts to improve MAOIs benefit-risk profile resulted on the reversible MAOI and in the first antidepressant patch (selegiline transdermal delivery system-STS). The later had been available in the US since 2006. Thus a review on its safety profile and comparative efficacy is timely. AREAS COVERED: This review provides an overview of STS's clinical pharmacology and summarizes what has been learned across nearly a decade of experience...

Due to the increasing costs and time consuming for new drug discovery, a large number of pharmaceutical firms have chosen to modify the existing drug molecules for repositioning candidates with new or improved properties, especially those with severe adverse effects, thereby accelerating the drug discovery process. Such strategy has witnessed its success with several examples reported. As the first identified histone lysine specific demethylase, lysine specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) is classified as a member of monoamine oxidase (MAO) superfamily, and specifically removes mono- and dimethylated histone 3 lysine 4 (H3K4) and H3 lysine 9 (H3K9)...