Biomedical subjects

C J Weitz

Publications and source records attributed to C J Weitz.

21 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed1986

Morphine and codeine from mammalian brain.

Recently, we described the presence of six immunoreactive (ir) morphinans in bovine adrenal and hypothalamus and identified one as morphine [Goldstein, A., Barrett, R. W., James, I. F., Lowney, L. I., Weitz, C. J., Knipmeyer, L. L. & Rapaport, H. (1985) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 82, 5203-5207]. We now report that ir morphinans corresponding to the previously reported peak 1 (morphine), peak 4, and peak 5 are consistently present in extracts of bovine hypothalamus and variably present in extracts of bovine adrenal and rat brain. We no longer detect the previously reported peaks 2, 3, or 6, and we have established that they were contamination artifacts. Peak 1 is coeluted with morphine in two distinct reversed-phase HPLC systems, as is peak 4 with codeine. We have purified peak 1 and peak 4 compounds from bovine hypothalamus and determined their identities by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS): peak 1 is confirmed to be morphine and peak 4 is codeine.

Adrenal Glands↗

PubMed1985

Morphine and other opiates from beef brain and adrenal.

We describe nonpeptide opioids found in extracts of beef hypothalamus and adrenal, which are recognized by antisera raised against morphine. Four have been purified to homogeneity. One is morphine. The structures of the other three have not been determined yet. None of them are derived from morphine or normorphine after extraction from the tissues. It is not known whether the opiates described here are of endogenous or exogenous origin.

Adrenal Glands↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Synthesis of the skeleton of the morphine molecule by mammalian liver.

The possibility that morphine could be synthesized in animals has long been considered and a pathway in mammalian brain analogous to that in the opium poppy has been proposed. Substances have been detected in mammalian brain that are recognized by antisera raised against morphine. Recently we reported the presence of three such immunoreactive substances in bovine hypothalamus and adrenal, and in rat brain, and the definitive identification of two of them by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry as morphine and codeine. Incorporation of a labelled precursor has demonstrated the biosynthesis of morphine in the opium poppy from tyrosine-derived units (see Fig. 1). Intramolecular coupling of reticuline to form salutaridine is the critical step that generates the morphine skeleton (morphinan) and the stereochemistry of the morphinan series. We now report the conversion in vivo and in vitro of reticuline to salutaridine by rat liver, but this conversion is not detectable in rat brain and bovine adrenal. This is the first direct demonstration of the synthesis of a morphinan in an animal tissue and also supports the hypothesis that morphine and codeine in brain and adrenal are of endogenous origin.

Adrenal Glands↗