Capillary
Electrophoresis–Mass Spectrometry-Based
Detection of Drugs and Neurotransmitters in Drosophila Brain
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Abstract
Capillary electrophoresis
coupled to mass spectrometry has been
used to determine the in vivo concentrations of the neuroactive drug,
methylphenidate, and a metabolite in the heads of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. These concentrations, evaluated
at the site of action, the brain, have been correlated with orally
administrated methylphenidate. D. melanogaster has a relatively simple nervous system but possesses high-order
brain functions similar to humans; thus, it has been used as a common
model system in biological and genetics research. Methylphenidate
has been used to mediate cocaine addiction due to its lower pharmacokinetics,
which results in fewer addictive and reinforcing effects than cocaine;
the effects of the drug on the nervous system, however, have not been
fully understood. In addition to measurements of drug concentration,
the method has been used to examine drug-dose dependence on the levels
of several primary biogenic amines. Higher in vivo concentration of
methylphenidate is observed with increasing feeding doses up to 25
mM methylphenidate. Furthermore, administrated methylphenidate increases
the drug metabolism activity and the neurotransmitter levels; however,
this increase appears to saturate at a feeding dose of 20 mM. The
method developed for the fruit fly provides a new tool to evaluate
the concentration of administered drug at the site of action and provides
information concerning the effect of methylphenidate on the nervous
system