Methamphetamine and mephedrone are designer drugs with high abuse liability and they share extensive similarities in their chemical structures and neuropharmacological effects. However, these drugs differ in one significant regard: methamphetamine elicits dopamine neurotoxicity and mephedrone does not. From a structural perspective, mephedrone has a β-keto group and a 4-methyl ring addition, both of which are lacking in methamphetamine. Our previous studies found that methcathinone, which contains only the β-keto substituent, is neurotoxic, while 4-methylmethamphetamine, which contains only the 4-methyl ring substituent, elicits minimal neurotoxicity. In the present study, it was hypothesized that the varying neurotoxic potential associated with these compounds is mediated by the drug-releasable pool of dopamine, which may be accessed by methamphetamine more readily than mephedrone, methcathinone, and 4-methylmethamphetamine. To test this hypothesis, l-DOPA and pargyline, compounds known to increase both the releasable pool of dopamine and methamphetamine neurotoxicity, were combined with mephedrone, 4-methylmethamphetamine and methcathinone. Methamphetamine was also tested because of its ability to increase releasable dopamine. All three regimens significantly enhanced striatal neurotoxicity and glial reactivity for 4-methylmethamphetamine. Methcathinone neurotoxicity and glial reactivity were enhanced only by l-DOPA. Mephedrone remained non-neurotoxic when combined with either l-DOPA or pargyline. Body temperature effects of each designer drug were not altered by the combined treatments. These results support the conclusion that the neurotoxicity of 4-methylmethamphetamine, methcathinone and methamphetamine may be differentially regulated by the drug-releasable pool of dopamine due to β-keto and 4-methyl substituents, but that mephedrone remains non-neurotoxic despite large increases in this pool of dopamine.

This article is part of the Special Issue entitled ‘Designer Drugs and Legal Highs.’