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Published on: November 10, 2008
Detection of tolcapone in the cerebrospinal fluid of parkinsonian subjects
1Department of Neurology, University of Regensburg, Germany.
Abstract:
The cerebral availability of the peripherally and centrally acting catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) inhibitor tolcapone is not known in humans. Therefore, we determined the concentration of tolcapone in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 12 parkinsonian subjects 1-4 h after oral application of 200 mg of the drug. The mean concentration was 56.4+/-35.5 nmol/l (mean +/- SD). This concentration was calculated to cause 75.2+/-15% (mean +/- SD) inhibition of COMT in CSF. Thus, tolcapone efficiently inhibits COMT after crossing the blood-brain barrier in humans.
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