Abstract
DURING a study of the inhibitory action of cocaine on cellular respiration, we found that the oxidations of added pyruvate by brain homogenate and by the respiring yeast, Torulopsis utilis, were inhibited to a similar degree, a 0.002-M concentration of the drug causing an inhibition of about 50 per cent in each case. It had previously been shown, using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, that the inhibition of fermentation by cocaine could also be attributed to the blocking of pyruvate metabolism, carboxylase being inhibited1,2.
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References
Ryman, B. E., and Walsh, E. O'F., Nature, 167, 770 (1951).
Ryman, B. E., and Walsh, E. O'F., Biochem. J., 50, 570 (1952).
Weinhause, S., and Millington, R. H., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 69, 3089 (1947).
Natelson, S., Pincus, J. B., and Lugovoy, J. K., J. Biol. Chem., 175, 745 (1948).
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RYMAN, B., WALSH, E. Inhibitory Action of Cocaine. Nature 172, 679 (1953). https://doi.org/10.1038/172679a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/172679a0
