Neuropsychopharmacological actions of taurine.

Taurine, an endogenous amino sulfonic acid, exhibits numerous neuropsychopharmacological activities. Previous studies in our laboratory have shown that it is an effective anti-cataleptic and neuro-protective agent. Current investigations show that acute or chronic administration of psychotropic drug cocaine may increase extracellular release of endogenous taurine which may protect against deleterious effects of the substances of abuse. Taurine administration was found to prevent cocaine-induced addiction by suppressing spontaneous locomotor activity and conditioned place preference. Taurine markedly delayed tail-flick response in rats which was significantly different from that in the group of animal receiving the same volume of saline, thereby indicating that taurine is a potentially valuable analgesic agent. Both taurine and endomorphin-1 were found to suppress the delayed broad negative evoked field potentials in anterior insular cortex (upper layer 5) by partially inhibiting NMDA receptor system. Thus, taurine is a unique psychopharmacological compound with potential for a variety of therapeutic uses including as a neuro-protective, anti-cataleptic, anti-addicting, and analgesic agent.