Monoamine Oxidases—New Vistas. Advances in Biochemical Psychopharmacology. Volume 5

This volume consists of a collection of papers on the classical mitochondrial monoamine oxidase and other amine oxidases presented at the Festschrift for Dr. H. Blaschko at Cagliari, Sardinia, 1971. In it the results of many investigations on the biochemistry, pharmacology and possible function of these enzymes over the past several years have been brought together. Much of the book is devoted to discussion of the purification and properties of the classical mitochondrial MAO. For years this enzyme resisted all attempts at solubilisation and purification, but it has now been obtained in a highly purified form from several sources by a number of groups and there is good agreement that it is a flavoprotein. However, detailed information of the mechanism of interaction of enzyme and substrate is still lacking though some beginning in this area is being made. One interesting development to which a considerable amount of space is devoted, concerns evidence that the enzyme may exi.st in multiple forms. The evidence comes in part from the electrophoretic patterns of solubilised enzyme preparations obtained from a number of sources, in part from the differential sensitivity of the enzyme to irreversible inhibitors in the presence of different substrates and in part from immunological studies. Unfortunately, no investigators have been able to exclude the possibility that the electrophoretically identified multiple forms may be artifacts of the harsh solubilisation procedures used. However, this criticism does not apply to the two forms of bovine brain monoamine oxidase which have been distinguished immunologically. The identification of a monoamine oxidase which appears to be specific for bovine brain prompted the speculation that such a brain specific monoamine oxidase may in fact be the target enzyme for monoamine oxidase inhibitors used clinically as antidepressants in which case the development of more specific inhibitors might prove valuable. Among the other contributions to this symposium, one group of particular interest deals with the relationship between intraneuronal MAO and the synthesis, release, and reuptake of norepinephrine and other monoamines. The book also includes excellent articles on the fine structural localisation of monoamine oxidase, on the plasma amine oxidases, diamine oxidase and amine oxidases from microorganisms. For students of the field of biogenic amines this volume contains much worthwhile reading.