Levodopa can cross the BBB and is less lipid soluble then dopamine, so dopamine should be able to cross the BBB more easily then l-dopa, but for some reason dopamine cant cross the BBB. Both dl-methamphetamine and levomethamphetamine can cross the blood brain barrier, but why not dl-dopamine?
Asked
Active
Viewed 4,252 times
1 Answers
5
Both L-Dopa and Dopamine are polar molecules and thus hydrophilic. They are solvable in water but not in lipids, so they are not able to cross the Blood-brain barrier on their own.
The difference is that L-Dopa has a transport protein (SLC7A5) that allows it to pass through the Blood-brain barrier, whereas dopamine doesn't.
macco
- 262
- 1
- 9
-
Yeah, that's LAT1, but why doesn't DAT1 have any effect? – kirill2485 Apr 25 '17 at 10:18
-
If you look at the distribution of LAT1 versus the distribution of DAT you can see that LAT1 is distributed in the blood-brain barrier, whereas DAT is not. – macco Apr 25 '17 at 10:42