Talk:Levodopa

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Contents 1 INN 2 Dopamine decarboxylase 3 L-DOPA in food 4 Hypotension 5 L dopa revives coma victims 6 Levodopa elevates homocysteine 7 Levodopa and hypotension 8 Toxicity issues

[edit] INN

In accordance with Wikipedia:WikiProject_Drugs naming policy, I propose we move this page to the INN levodopa. If you have any concern with this proposal, please discuss it on this page. Matt 18:09, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Done. -Techelf 12:33, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dopamine decarboxylase

Under the Therapeutic Use section, I'm pretty sure that this statement is wrong:

"so it is administered with a peripheral DDC (dopamine decarboxylase) inhibitor such as carbidopa"

I believe that it should be "DOPA decarboxylase" instead of "dopamine decarboxylase"

Could you please address this minor fault.

You're right, the enzyme involved is aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (a.k.a. DOPA decarboxylase). Article updated. -Techelf 12:33, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] L-DOPA in food

Could someone please include some information on l-dopa in foods? The fava bean, for example, contains a high level of "natural" l-dopa.

[edit] Hypotension

Maybe I'm missing something, but wouldn't L-DOPA, being converted in the periphery to dopamine, therefore cause an increase in blood pressure?-Anodyne 25 September 2006

yes yes please answer this question...i thought dopamine would increase blood pressure...and also even after it gets converted to noradrenaline and adrenaline it would still cause hypertension.... i was just wondering if this is the answer...if theres too much adrenaline in blood it causes the fight flight fright responses...then it would direct the blood to the muscles of the legs so it would help us to run faster (to get out of there)and causes other things like increase heart rate and ilke dilation of pupils (to see better) and etc.... so in an overdose of L-dopa you get too much vasodilation in the muscles and too much vessel constriction in the gut and stuff...and the blood pools away in the muscle causing hypotension inside the organs?

[edit] L dopa revives coma victims

As is the premise of the latest episode of House. Why is there no mention of this? It's use of reviving coma victims originated in south africa, its revival only lasts 4 hours. Very interesting, like temporary revival of the dead, just to ask some questions.

House = Fiction. QED. Zerocannon 16:28, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

This not "exactly" fiction, for certain values of exactly.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1344209

Here is a more "pop-sci" article if you do not enjoy medical journels

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article727295.ece

Agalmic (talk) 15:39, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Levodopa elevates homocysteine

There are articles telling of homocysteine increase due to levodopa, and studies showing that folic acid could help with this. Best regards, CopperKettle 10:18, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Levodopa and hypotension

Levodopa increases all of the catecholamines, but mostly dopamine. Since dopamine is an adrenergic, you might exect it to cause hypertension, but it is a selective-beta adrenergic receptor agonist with no significant alpha action. Whereas alpha receptors constrict blood vessels in intestines and stomach and stuff, beta receptors dilate vessels in skeletal muscle to allow more nutrients to go to the muscles. The result is that since levodopa mainly increases dopamine, and dopamine works only on beta receptors, blood vessel only dilate and hypotension can occur. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.216.99.188 (talk) 06:45, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Toxicity issues

I have added some information on cellular and neuronal toxicity induced by Levodopa in the "Adverse Effects" section of the article, and have provided references to medical research journals for the statements. I believe, however, that such a section should be enlarged to include more of these related issues, as the drug is sold over the counter as a dietary supplement and safety information (especially from extracts) is scarce.

18:03, 8 March 2008 (UTC)