Mj. Rowland et al., HYPOGLYCEMIA CAUSED BY SELEGILINE, AN ANTIPARKINSONIAN DRUG - CAN SUCH SIDE-EFFECTS BE PREDICTED, Journal of clinical pharmacology, 34(1), 1994, pp. 80-85
Treatment with selegiline produced profound hypoglycemia in a 70-year-
old man with Parkinson's disease. The hypoglycemia was accompanied by
hyperinsulinemia and persisted for 1 week after selegiline was discont
inued. Although this side effect of antidepressant monoamine oxidase i
nhibitors was well documented in 1959-1968 publications, it was not kn
own to the manufacturer of selegiline. Effects of drugs on glucose met
abolism may be predictable through a novel molecular modeling techniqu
e developed in our laboratories, which shows that glucose exhibits ste
reochemical complementarity to a specific site in partially unwound DN
A. Selegiline and other molecules affecting glucose metabolism fit int
o the same DNA base sequence. It therefore should be possible to emplo
y this technique to identify pharmaceutical agents that posses hypogly
cemic or hyperglycemic effects in vivo.