Xref: utzoo sci.bio:837 sci.med:3891
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!spdcc!dyer
From: dyer@spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.med
Subject: Re: Acetylcholine source needed...
Message-ID: <579@spdcc.COM>
Date: 18 Jan 88 16:48:11 GMT
References: <506@dl901b.engin.umich.edu> <560@spdcc.COM> <1559@aecom.YU.EDU>
Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA
Lines: 21

In article <1559@aecom.YU.EDU>, werner@aecom.YU.EDU (Craig Werner) writes:
> 	Of course, there are drugs that increase acetylcholine in the
> nerve terminals: Edrophonium, Neostigmine, and other Acetylcholinesterase
> inhibitors.  However, since acetylcholine is also used in autonomic
> ganglia and muscle-nerve endplates, the effect will bring on uncontrolled
> sweating and muscle spasms rather than memory enhancement.

Also, the drugs you mentioned are quaternary ammonium salts, deliberately
designed to be impermeable to the blood-brain barrier so that a sufficient
dose can exert its effect at the endplate in myasthenic patients without undue
central nervous system effects.  Physostigmine, a tertiary amine, (from whence
is derived the name of the drug "neostigmine") penetrates the CNS, and is used
in cases of overdoses of antimuscarinic drugs affecting both the CNS and
periphery (e.g, atropine, scopolamine, antihistamines, tricyclic anti-
depressants).  The side-effects you mention along with a variety of central
effects, e.g., delirium, drowsiness, or excitement, would occur before
you could see any clear effect on memory.
-- 
Steve Dyer
dyer@harvard.harvard.edu
dyer@spdcc.COM aka {ihnp4,harvard,husc6,linus,ima,bbn,m2c}!spdcc!dyer