Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Clonidine protection from soman and echothiophate toxicity in mice

1986; Elsevier BV; Volume: 39; Issue: 22 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0024-3205(86)90361-9

1879-0631

Robert S. Aronstam, Mark D. Smith, Jerry J. Buccafusco,

Environmental Toxicology and Ecotoxicology

The influence of clonidine on the toxicity produced by two irreversible, organophosphate cholinesterase inhibitors, soman and echothiophate, was studied in mice. At lethal doses, soman produced whole body tremor but no muscle fasiculation; at lethal doses, echothiophate produced muscle fasiculations but no whole body tremor. Pretreatment with clonidine protected against several toxic manifestations of soman, but had little effect on echothiophate toxicity. In addition to its documented effects on acetylcholine metabolism, clonidine was found to be a weak inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase. At certain concentrations, clonidine protected the enzyme from permanent inactivation by soman. These findings indicate that the toxicity of soman and echothiophate reflect primarily central and peripheral actions, respectively, and that clonidine has a much greater protective effect versus the centrally-acting agent. Moreover, direct interactions with acetylcholinesterase may contribute to clonidine protection from cholinesterase inhibitor toxicity.