Brain Metabolic Changes in Rats After Dextromethorphan

Dextromethorphan is recognized as a substance of abuse. We established a brain metabolomics method to study dexamethasone intervention rats based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The rats were divided into four groups, control group, and three dextromethorphan treated groups (Low, Medium, High). Partial least squares-discriminate analysis (PLS-DA) score chart showed that the first principal components of the rats in the dextromethorphan group (Low, Mediun, High) were distinguished from the rats in the control group. Compared to the control group, serine, malic acid, L-proline, pentanedioic acid, 4-pentenoic acid, xylonic acid decreased in the Low group; lyxose, d-glucose, D-mannitol, benzoic acid, cholesterol increased in the Low group. Compared to the control group, L-proline, 4-pentenoic acid, xylonic acid, DL-xylitol decreased in the Medium group; D-glucose increased in the Medium group. Compared to the control group, serine, L-proline, 4-pentenoic acid decreased in the High group; arabinitol increased in the High group. The results indicate that metabolomic method by GC-MS may be useful to elucidate abuse of dextromethorphan, it revealed that intragastric administration of dextromethorphan induced metabolic perturbations.