Effects of Tricyano-amino-propene on Metabolism of Isolated Cerebral Tissue

Abstract

Egyhazi and Hyden¹ have reported that tricyano-amino-propene, a dimer of malononitrile, produced significant changes in nucleic acid and protein concentration in neurones and oligodendroglia. These results were obtained with a microelectrophoretic technique and supported previous observations obtained in work on malononitrile by Hartelius and Hyden². In 1948 these investigators reported that malononitrile injected into rabbits produced an increase in the nucleoprotein content of neurones 1–24 h following injection. They also reported that malononitrile had a beneficial effect when administered to patients suffering from a variety of psychotic and depressive illnesses. Attempts to replicate these findings by a number of investigators^3–5 were not successful. Experiments carried out by Mendelson et al.⁶ showed that the malononitrile preparation used by Hyden was not similar to freshly prepared solutions used by other investigators and that malononitrile in aqueous solution underwent degradation with formation of a new compound. This compound was isolated by Eberts⁷ and was identified as 1,1,3-tricyano-2-amino-1-propene (tri-a-p).