Tetrahydropapaveroline in Parkinson's disease and alcoholism: a look back in honor of Merton Sandler.

Although Dr. Merton Sandler's extensive and vigorous research program over the years has been concerned mainly with classical biogenic amines, monoamine oxidase (MAO), and MAO inhibitors, he and his group contributed a significant early Parkinson's disease-related study of a non-classical or "aberrant" biogenic amine. The formation and production of this amine, the dopamine-derived mammalian alkaloid, tetrahydropapaveroline (THP), is in fact dependent on MAO activity. As reviewed here, that study provided the groundwork for and indeed stimulated many later investigations of mammalian alkaloids in numerous laboratories around the world.