5-HTP Cardiotoxicity

[LSDreamer]

I read a post some time ago regarding 5-HTP's potential cardiotoxicity. Anyone have a link to this post (tried searching) or any information on the subject.

 

[kaskelot]

I'm not skilled or educated enough to give an initiated presentation of the correlation between 5-HTP and cardiac damage, and I also couldn't find where this has been discussed before. Anyways, I found a picture I think I got from BL showing how some stimulants with 5-HT2b-affinity causes degeneration in tissue of the heart. I guess what you're asking for interlocks with the process depicted in the picture.

http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/4517/03f1wo0.jpg

As I have understood the mechanisms of this toxicity high levels of serotonin will activate, at least hypothetically, cardiac 5-HT2b-receptors which regulate cellular growth in ventricular parts of the heart with weakened muscular tissues and possibly over time heart-attack (or what similar condition actually takes place in bad case scenarios). When adding 5-HTP to the body it pretty quickly gets synthesized to 5-HT in the CNS and the liver, and when taken in large amounts 5-HTP cause large amounts of 5-HT to circulate in the body if there is vitamin B6 and the required decarboxylase enzymes available for the synthesis in the liver which then releases 5-HT into the circulatory system, 5-HTP can cross the BBB but 5-HT cannot.

High, or raised over lengths of time, levels of 5-HT in blood can cause negative effects, such as cardiac fibrosis from 5-HT2b-activity, but this could be counteracted by peripheral inhibition of decarboxylase making 5-HTP go to where one probably wants it, the CNS/brain, and when turned into 5-HT in there it's locked in by its own properties in relation to BBB. I'm not sure at all, but my memory says carbidopa is such an inhibitor, thus useful for lowering risk of 5-HTP-related toxicity.

Somewhat of a ramble, pardon me for that, and I hope I'm not all too wrong about how this negative potential comes into action, and that my probably not very well written english is readable to others but my own not natively english mind.

Edit: Typo-fixes, but I left grammar deficits untreated due to unstable over-all condition making larger insisions very risky.

 

[bighooter]

where do you get this cardibopa from then?

 

[kaskelot]

where do you get this cardibopa from then?

Carbidopa, it is prescribed as Parkinsons disease medicine, Sinemet, Atamet, Parcopa, and one more variety I forgot what it's called. One or more of these contain substances except carbidopa, I think Sinemet has levodopa added and thus greatly increases CNS dopamine levels. You can easily find information on these through your favorite Rx-information resource, or perhaps Wikipedia which I haven't checked with regards to this, but I guess there's some useful information there.

Online pharmacies do sell carbidopa, if I'm not entirely mistaken, but on the other hand, I don't think this is an ideal place to discuss quasilegal sources of Rx-substances.

This article is quite generally describing carbidopa and some of it's effects in the body when acting as a decarboxylase inhibitor and as such having several effects:
(http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/30/6/1544)
Go here instead:
http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/search?journalcode=hypertensionaha&fulltext=carbidopa

Here's a carbidopa-patent, I found it to be an interesting read:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7101912.html


And still, I'd like someone more learned than me either correcting or otherwise completing my thoughts on the cardio toxicity issue.

Edit: Journal-link, the search result is more informative than the specific study I first linked to on its own.

Second edit: Here are BL-threads discussing this topic:
http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=226948
http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=206849

 

[bighooter]

So what your saying is technically using 5htp could cause parkinsons?

 

[phase_dancer]

No, what kaskelot is basically referring to are the possible effects of 5HTP on the heart. Carbidopa is used as an adjunct therapy in Parkinsons Disease. It assists L-dopa to get across the BBB by limiting peripheral decaboxylation i.e. more gets to where it's needed, where decarboxylation produces dopamine.

Using carbidopa with 5HTP is thought to also limit, by inhibition of amino acid decaboxylase, the decarboxylation of the 5HTP in extracerebral tissues, and thus permits more 5HTP to cross the BBB. As mentioned, serotonin (5HT) can't cross the BBB very well. When produced outside of the brain, this additional 5HT has potential to cause cellular proliferation (leading to fibrosis) of the cordinae tendenae associated with the mitral valve of the heart.