Biological Activity
harmine, also known as telepathine, is an alkaloid of the β-carboline family that regulates pparγ expression through inhibition of the wnt signaling pathway. it also selectively binds to mao-a and reversibly inhibits monoamine oxidase a (mao-a) but not the variant mao-b[3].harmine has a severe cytotoxicity in hepatoma cells and holds great promise as an oncologic drug for anticancer treatment[4].[1] smith b, medda f, gokhale v, et al. recent advances in thedesign, synthesis, and biologicalevaluation of selective dyrk1a inhibitors: a new avenue for a diseasemodifying treatment of alzheimer’s?[j]. acs chemical neuroscience, 2012, 3(11):857-72.[2] waki h, park k w, mitro n, et al. the small molecule harmine is an antidiabetic cell-type-specific regulator of ppargamma expression.[j]. cell metabolism, 2007, 5(5):357-370.[3] ginovart n, meyer j h, boovariwala a, et al. positron emission tomography quantification of |[lsqb]|11c|[rsqb]|-harmine binding to monoamine oxidase-a in the human brain[j]. journal of cerebral blood flow & metabolism official journal of the international society of cerebral blood flow & metabolism, 2006, 26(3):330-44.[4] zhang l, zhang f, zhang w, et al. harmine suppresses homologous recombination repair and inhibits proliferation of hepatoma cells[j]. cancer biology & therapy, 2015, 16(11):1585-1592.
Purification Methods
Crystallise harmine from MeOH and sublime it in a vacuum. See hydrochloride below. [Beilstein 23 II 348, 23 III/IV 2702, 23/12 V 237.]
