Catecholaminergic activity enhancer

BPAP ((−)-1-(benzofuran-2-yl)-2-propylaminopentane) is a research compound made by Joseph Knoll's Budapest group and Fujimoto Pharmaceutical by swapping the phenyl ring of PPAP for a benzofuran, and chosen from 65 analogs as a possible successor to selegiline. In rat tissue it raised the release of dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin evoked by nerve impulses at femtomolar to picomolar concentrations, without releasing them at rest, and in the shuttle box it was about 130 times as potent as selegiline. It also blocks dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake more potently than cocaine. No human has been studied at any dose, a 2016 longevity benefit in rats was not reproduced in a 2024 study of aged rats, and almost all of the work comes from the inventors and their industrial partner.

PPAP (1-phenyl-2-propylaminopentane) is a research stimulant made in Joseph Knoll's Budapest laboratory as a version of selegiline with the MAO-B inhibition taken out. In rats it improved learning and retention, reversed the learning deficit caused by tetrabenazine and was active in the forced swimming test, without releasing catecholamines the way amphetamine does. No human has been studied at any dose: its inventor wrote in 2001 that, despite his group's efforts, it had never been tested clinically, and almost every experiment comes from the group that invented it.

Selegiline (L-deprenyl) is an irreversible MAO-B inhibitor created in Joseph Knoll's Budapest laboratory in the 1960s and prescribed for Parkinson's disease and, as a skin patch, for major depression. In early Parkinson's disease 10 mg a day delayed the need for levodopa by about nine months, though whether that was protection or symptom relief was never settled; the patch beat placebo modestly in adult depression and not at all in adolescents. It is broken down to l-methamphetamine and l-amphetamine. Its reputation as an anti-aging drug rests on rat longevity studies that replicated inconsistently, and a Cochrane review found no clinically meaningful benefit in Alzheimer's disease.