Just as DeLong was working on the subthalamic nucleus, a new drug, billed by dealers as “synthetic heroin,” showed up on the street. This drug was contaminated with MPTP (1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine), a substance that causes the slowness of movement, tremor, and muscular rigidity typical of Parkinson’s disease. After some young people who had taken the drug died, autopsies revealed that MPTP had destroyed the subthalamic nucleus, and with it the brain cells that produce dopamine. Such damage could not be reversed in survivors, but they did respond positively to L-dopa.
