Labware Additives Identified to Be Selective Monoamine Oxidase-B Inhibitors

Plastic labware is used in all processes of modern pharmaceutical research, including compound storage and biological assays. The use of these plastics has created vast increases in productivity and cost savings as experiments moved from glass test tubes and capillary pipettes to plastic microplates and multichannel liquid handlers. One consequence of the use of plastic labware, however, is the potential release of contaminants and their resultant effects on biological assays. We report herein the identification of biologically active substances released from a commonly used plastic microplate. The active contaminants were identified by gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy as dodecan-1-ol, dodecyl 3-(3-dodecoxy-3oxopropyl)sulfanylpropanoate, and dodecanoic acid, and they were found to be selective monoamine oxidase-B inhibitors.