Editing MPTP (section)

==Discovery in users of illicit drugs==
The neurotoxicity of MPTP was hinted at in 1976 after Barry Kidston, a 23-year-old chemistry graduate student in [[Maryland]], US, synthesized MPPP with MPTP as a major impurity and self-injected the result. Within three days he began exhibiting symptoms of Parkinson's disease. The [[National Institute of Mental Health]] found traces of MPTP and other [[pethidine]] [[structural analog|analogs]] in his lab. They tested the substances on rats, but due to rodents' tolerance for this type of neurotoxin, nothing was observed. Kidston's Parkinsonism was treated with [[levodopa]] but he died 18 months later from a [[cocaine]] overdose. Upon autopsy, [[Lewy body|Lewy bodies]] and destruction of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra were discovered.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Fahn, S. | title = Book Review -- The Case of the Frozen Addicts: How the Solution of an Extraordinary Medical Mystery Spawned a Revolution in the Understanding and Treatment of Parkinson's Disease | journal = The New England Journal of Medicine | year = 1996 | volume = 335 | issue = 26 | pages = 2002–2003 | doi = 10.1056/NEJM199612263352618 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | journal = Psychiatry Research |vauthors=Davis GC, Williams AC, Markey SP, Ebert MH, Caine ED, Reichert CM, Kopin IJ | volume = 1 | issue = 3 | date = 1979 | pages = 249–254 | title = Chronic parkinsonism secondary to intravenous injection of meperidine analogs | doi = 10.1016/0165-1781(79)90006-4|pmid=298352 |s2cid=44304872}}</ref>

In 1983, four people in [[Santa Clara County, California]], US, were diagnosed with Parkinsonism after having used MPPP contaminated with MPTP, and as many as 120 were reported to have been diagnosed with Parkinson's symptoms.<ref>{{cite news |title=Bogus Heroin Brings Illness on the Coast |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1983/12/09/100194.html?zoom=16&pageNumber=20 |access-date=3 September 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=9 December 1983}}</ref> The neurologist [[William Langston|J. William Langston]] in collaboration with NIH tracked down MPTP as the cause, and its effects on primates were researched. After performing neural grafts of fetal tissue on three of the patients at [[Lund University|Lund University Hospital]] in [[Sweden]], the motor symptoms of two of the three patients were successfully treated, and the third showed partial recovery.<ref>{{cite news | url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE7D91030F935A15752C1A964958260 | title = Success reported using fetal tissue to repair a brain | newspaper = [[The New York Times]] | date = 26 November 1992}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/05/medical-mystery-how-tainted-drugs-froze-young-people-but-kickstarted-parkinsons-research/|title=How tainted drugs "froze" young people—but kickstarted Parkinson's research|work=[[Ars Technica]]|access-date=21 May 2016}}</ref>

Langston documented the case in his 1995 book ''The Case of the Frozen Addicts'',<ref>{{cite book |last=Langston |first=J. W. |url=https://archive.org/details/caseoffrozenaddi00lang |title=The Case of the Frozen Addicts |author2=Palfreman, J. |date=May 1995 |publisher=[[Pantheon Books]] |isbn=978-0-679-42465-9 |author-link1=William Langston |author-link2=Jon Palfreman |url-access=registration}}</ref> which was later featured in two [[Nova (American TV series)|''NOVA'']] productions by [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]], re-aired in the UK on the [[BBC]] science series [[Horizon (UK TV series)|''Horizon'']].<ref>"The Case of the Frozen Addicts" first broadcast 7 April 1986 and "Awakening the Frozen Addicts" first broadcast 4 January 1993. See [[List of Horizon episodes]]</ref>