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Marc Hellé

Why can't dopamine cross the blood brain barrier but l-dopa can?

Arlen Alexander  Follow

Both L-Dopa and Dopamine are polar molecules and thus hydrophilic. They are solvable in water but not in lipids, so they are not able to cross the Blood-brain barrier on their own.

The difference is that L-Dopa has a transport protein (SLC7A5) that allows it to pass through the Blood-brain barrier, whereas dopamine doesn't.

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Jeff Wilsbacher  Follow
distribution of DATMore
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Gregory Bloom-Salm  Follow
you can see that LAT1 is distributed in the blood-brain barrier, whereas DAT is not.More
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Josh-D. Davis  Follow
If you look at the More
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Fortunato Guzzo  Follow
Yeah, that's LAT1, but why doesn't DAT1 have any​ effect?More
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Hajira Tahir  Follow
versus the More
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