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Fowler JS, Volkow ND, Gene-Jack W, Pappas N, Logan J, Shea C, Alexoff D, MacGregor RR, Schlyer DJ, Zezulkova I, Wolf AP.
“Brain monoamine oxidase A inhibition in cigarette smokers”.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.. 1996 Nov;93:14065-9.
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Abstract
Several studies have documented a strong association between smoking and depression. Because cigarette smoke has been reported to inhibit monoamine oxidase (MAO) A in vitro and in animals and because MAO A inhibitors are effective antidepressants, we tested the hypothesis that MAO A would be reduced in the brain of cigarette smokers. We compared brain MAO A in 15 nonsmokers and 16 current smokers with [11C]clorgyline and positron emission tomography (PET). Four of the nonsmokers were also treated with the antidepressant MAO inhibitor drug, tranylcypromine (10 mgyday for 3 days) after the baseline PET scan and then rescanned to assess the sensitivity of [11C]clorgyline binding to MAO inhibition. MAO A levels were quantified by using the model term lk3which is a function of brain MAO A concentration. Smokers had significantly lower brain MAO A than nonsmokers in all brain regions examined (average reduction, 28%). The mean lk3 values for the whole brain were 0.18 6 0.04 and 0.13 6 0.03 ccbrain (mlplasma)21 min21 for nonsmokers and smokers, respectively; P < 0.0003). Tranylcypromine treatment reduced lk3 by an average of 58% for the different brain regions. Our results show that tobacco smoke exposure is associated with a marked reduction in brainMAO A, and this reduction is about half of that produced by a brief treatment with tranylcypromine. This suggests that MAO A inhibition needs to be considered as a potential contributing variable in the high rate of smoking in depression and in the development of more effective strategies for smoking cessation.
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