Herman Blaschko https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Blaschko

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Hermann Blaschko , full name Hermann Felix Blaschko (born January 4, 1900 in Berlin , † April 18, 1993 in Oxford ) was a German-British biochemist and pharmacologist . When a Jew emigrated in 1933, he mainly created his scientific work in England, where he mostly called himself Hugh Blaschko .

Nazi terror did not hit Hermann Blaschko directly. At the time of the seizure of power in 1933 he was again in the hospital with tuberculosis in Freiburg, where Hans Adolf Krebs was one of his doctors. There he received an invitation from AV Hill. In May 1933, he left Germany with the help of the British Academic Assistance Council . Initially, still convalescent, he worked in this organization, but in 1934 he accepted an invitation from the physiologist Joseph Barcroft to the University of Cambridge . As with Meyerhof, he initially researched energy metabolism and inner breathing . He used “ Warburg-Manometer that he bought with his last money in Germany. One day Barcroft asked him, "How is adrenaline broken down in the body?" Blaschko didn't know, and neither did literature. With his co-emigrant Hans Schlossmann, he decided to search for the answer experimentally. He had found the subject of his future research.

Blaschko's first major contribution to biology was - in response to Barcroft's question - the discovery of an adrenaline-degrading enzyme, initially adrenaline oxidase, now called monoamine oxidase .

The second major contribution was the clarification of the biosynthesis of the catecholamines. She followed the path tyrosine → levodopa → dopamine and then probably → noradrenaline → adrenaline.

..Blaschko, together with the Mainz pharmacologist Erich Muscholl, published the most thorough work on catecholamines from the 1970s.

Monoamine oxidases https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoaminoxidasen

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The monoamine oxidases ( MAO ) are mitochondrial enzymes that break down monoamines by deamination with the help of H 2 O and O 2 to the corresponding aldehydes , ammonia and hydrogen peroxide . These reactions are part of the biotransformation in eukaryotes and serve to break down toxic substances.

• The Dunedin MAO study

The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study is a long-term cohort study that accompanies 1,047 people who were born in Dunedin , New Zealand during a specific year . In 2002, Caspi and co-authors examined the participants' hypothesis whether men who were abused as children deal differently with their past and whether any differences depend on the level of MAO-A activity. It was known from previous studies that abused baby animals in the urine have similar changes in monoamine levels as under MAO-A deficiency.

..From 2004 to 2006, six further studies appeared, some of which confirmed the results of the Dunedin Caspis study, but some of which could not be found. Noteworthy for the number of its participants is the work of Frazzetto and co-authors who, in 2007, based on a mixed group of 235 psychiatric patients and healthy individuals, found confirmation that a low MAO-A value due to the VNTR in the promoter together with an abuse in the Childhood are associated with an increased risk of later aggressive behavior.

At the 73rd conference of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in 2004, Gibbons presented data on the MAOA gene in other primates and speculated on the possibility that certain variants of the gene would have given the wearer an advantage in evolution. He called these variants or the gene the warrior gene (German: warrior gene ). So far, however, the only valid results from studies with large numbers of participants had only been achieved with a severe lack of MAO or with child abuse experiences.

The term warrior gene first became popular in the mass media after Lea and co-authors published data at the thirteenth international Congress of Human Genetics in 2006 that should show that the South Pacific spread of the Māori was more likely to be associated with low MAO-A values . Here, too, a direct connection to behavior was suggested, which is not guaranteed in this way. In addition, the work of Caspi, to which Lea referred, was carried out with participants of European origin, while Lea's data came from 17 Māori, of whom 60 percent had lower MAO-A values.

Marvin Zuckerman examined biochemical correlates in connection with sensation seeking . Accordingly, MAO-B concentrations correlate negatively with self-assessed sensation seeking (but also aggressiveness and impulsiveness).

There are natural and artificially synthesized substances that inhibit this enzyme and are called monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOH). Some drugs with MAOH effects are used as antidepressants . The natural MAOH Harmalin is traditionally used by various South American Indian peoples in the drug preparation Ayahuasca .