R(-)-Deprenyl hydrochloride

R(-)-Deprenyl hydrochloride is the hydrochloride salt preparation of R(-)-Deprenyl, an inhibitor of MAO-B (monoamine oxidase-B) which demonstrates extensive neuroprotective effects shown to be uncorrelated with MAO-B inhibiting activity. R(-)-Deprenyl demonstrates protection of dopaminergic neurons from excitotoxicity mediated by NMDA activation. R(-)-Deprenyl also demonstrates decreases in apoptosis of PC12 neuronal cells accompanied with an induction of new protein synthesis through direct transcriptional and translational interaction, and reduced cell death and internucleosomal DNA degredation at concentrations too low to inhibit MAO-B. The GAPDH (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) enzyme is implicated as a potential mediator of R(-)-Deprenyl-induced neuroprotection - reported to interact with proteins implicated in neurodegeneration and to activate transcription in neuronal cells, GAPDH has also been shown to directly interact with CGP 3466, a close structural and functional analog of R(-)-Deprenyl.