The acute and chronic effects of D-amphetamine, chlorpromazine, amitriptyline and lithium chloride on adenosine 5-triphosphatases in different regions of the rat brain

Abstract

The hypothesis that adenosine triphosphatase plays a primary role in the re-uptake process of biogenic amines in the rat brain was tested. Four centrally acting drugs, known to alter the turnover of biogenic amines in different ways, were studied for their in vivo effects on Na + K + ATPase and Mg 2+ (EC 3.6.1.5) ATPase activities in high-speed supernatant fractions from ten brain regions. The acute and chronic administration of amphetamine, amitriptyline, chlorpromazine and lithium chloride altered the activities of the ATPases in several of the brain regions studied. In most cases, the regions in which the activity of these enzymes was most affected coincided with the areas in which other investigators have shown these drugs to have a pharmacological action. Amphetamine and amitriptyline increased the activity of the ATP'ases in several regions whereas chlorpromazine and lithium chloride had the opposite effects. While it seems possible that different classes of drugs can affect ATP'ases in different ways depending on their neuropharmacological profile, there is little evidence from this study to substantiate the view that changes in ATP'ase activity is directly involved in the activity of the re-uptake transport system for brain biogenic amines.