BPAP

Who did the research

Of 40 BPAP papers found on PubMed on 25 October 2026, 38 list Joseph Knoll, Ildiko Miklya, Fumio Yoneda or Seiichiro Shimazu as authors. These are members of Knoll's group at Semmelweis University in Budapest and of Fujimoto Pharmaceutical Corporation of Osaka, where the compound series was designed and prepared and which supplied BPAP for a 2023 Semmelweis study (PMID: 11377178, PMID: 37306892). The two exceptions are a 2010 addiction study from Kyushu University and a 2006 cell study from the Department of Vascular Neurology at Semmelweis University (PMID: 19883738, PMID: 16624331).

Lifespan and aging in rats

• Knoll and Miklya 2016, groups of 40 male Wistar rats. Rats received saline, selegiline or BPAP under the skin three times a week from their 10th week until death. Rats given BPAP at 0.0001 or 0.05 mg/kg lived significantly longer than saline-treated rats (P<0.02), and at 18 months rats on the lower dose learned in the shuttle box as well as 3-month-old saline-treated rats (PMID: 27777099).
• Knoll and colleagues 2017, tumors in a longevity study with the same doses. A fibromyxosarcoma appeared in 20 of 40 saline-treated rats, against 8 of 40 and 7 of 40 rats on the two BPAP doses (P<0.001 and P<0.01). In human medulloblastoma cell lines BPAP had no direct cytotoxic effect and did not change the effects of temozolomide, cisplatin, etoposide or vincristine (PMID: 28623006).
• Ernyey and colleagues 2023, 30 aged male Long-Evans rats, with Miklya as a co-author. Rats trained since youth in four cognitive tasks received BPAP (15 rats) or saline (15 rats) under the skin on weekdays from 27 months of age until death. BPAP did not improve performance in any task and did not change survival (Cox-Mantel test p=0.81; mean lifespan 36.2 against 35.7 months); the authors suggested that food restriction and lifelong training created a ceiling effect (PMID: 37306892).

Learning and Parkinson's disease models in rats

• Shuttle box. In rats given tetrabenazine, which depletes catecholamines and blocks avoidance learning, BPAP restored learning and was about 130 times more potent than selegiline (PMID: 10588928). A trifluorinated analogue, 3-F-BPAP, blocked this effect of BPAP but not that of selegiline (PMID: 12175892).
• Movement. BPAP increased locomotor activity in normal rats at 0.3 to 10 mg/kg, reversed reserpine-induced low activity and drooping eyelids (ptosis), and increased turning in rats with one-sided 6-hydroxydopamine lesions; a dopamine D1 receptor antagonist reduced these effects (PMID: 11516435).
• Levodopa. In reserpine-treated rats, subthreshold doses of BPAP and levodopa strongly increased activity when given together (PMID: 12527038).

Mood, stress and anxiety models

• Nagoya University 2008, mice and rats. Single but not repeated BPAP doses reduced immobility in forced swimming in mice, and repeated BPAP improved social interaction after forced swimming, an effect blocked by dopamine receptor antagonists. In rats with the olfactory bulbs removed, a depression model, repeated BPAP improved social interaction, prepulse inhibition and tone-cue fear learning without changing locomotor activity (PMID: 18243357).
• Semmelweis University 2019, rats. Three weeks of BPAP or selegiline at the low specific enhancer doses raised phosphorylated glutamate receptor subunits in the prefrontal cortex and lowered resting corticosterone in the dark phase; the higher doses showed only a tendency toward less anxiety-like behavior (PMID: 31610214).
• Slovak and Hungarian groups 2022, chronically stressed rats. BPAP and selegiline changed glutamate receptor subunit gene expression in some brain regions but did not significantly change stress hormones or anxiety behavior (PMID: 35853552).

Addiction model

• Kyushu University 2010, rats. In rats trained to self-administer methamphetamine, repeated or single doses of BPAP reduced reinstatement of drug seeking triggered by drug-paired cues or by methamphetamine, did not trigger seeking on their own and did not change methamphetamine self-administration (PMID: 19883738).

Tumor model

• Semmelweis University 2019, mice. In a mouse lung adenocarcinoma xenograft model, both a low and a high BPAP dose slowed tumor growth through different signalling routes, and treated mice kept better body weight; the authors described BPAP as having low toxicity (PMID: 30734151).

Animal and cell findings

BPAP increased movement in rats: locomotor activity rose at 0.3 to 10 mg/kg, an effect reduced by a dopamine D1 receptor antagonist (PMID: 11516435). In cell assays BPAP blocked the human dopamine and noradrenaline transporters at nanomolar concentrations (PMID: 14659999). In the 2023 study of aged rats, gross autopsy findings showed no notable difference between BPAP and saline groups (PMID: 37306892), and the authors of the mouse lung cancer study described BPAP as having low toxicity (PMID: 30734151).

What has not been studied

No standard toxicology, reproductive or carcinogenicity study of BPAP appears on PubMed. Reviews co-written by Miklya describe BPAP as unusually safe and well tolerated, a description that rests on animal work rather than on human data (PMID: 16023777).