Therapeutic Approaches to the Treatment of Botulism

Abstract

Pharmacological methods are being sought to prevent or reverse the effects of botulinum neurotoxin. During the past year, emphasis has been placed on drugs that interact with potassium channels. Work during the past year has focused on three problems: i) aminopyridines and their analogues, ii) dendrotoxin, and iii) rubidium flux. The work on aminopyridines cofirms that they are very narrow in their utility as anti-botulism agents. The studies on dendrotoxin resulted in the provocative finding that the agent did not antagonize any clostridial neurotoxin, nor could it reverse the effects of low calcium or high magnesium. The final aspect of the research was to establish a protocol for studying rubidium flux. This may represent a rational approach for finding clostridial toxin antagonists. Keywords: Botulinum neurotoxin; Neuromuscular blockade; Experimental therapeutics; RA1.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 1989
Accession Number
ADA220814

Entities

People

  • Lance L. Simpson

Organizations

  • Thomas Jefferson University

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Amines
  • Analogs
  • Anesthesia
  • Botulism
  • Cells
  • Classification
  • Diseases And Disorders
  • Elements
  • Laboratory Animals
  • Magnesium
  • Nerves
  • Neuromuscular Agents
  • Neurotoxins
  • Peripheral Nervous System
  • Rubidium
  • Toxins

Readers

  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Microbial Pathology
  • Theoretical Analysis.