Neurotoxicity Flashcards
Two most widely used neurotoxic agents
Caffeine and ethanol
How does the environment play in toxicity?
Many human diseases attributed to incompatibility between our current environment and the environment for which our genome is adapted
Where does ethanol contribute most deaths?
EU
Give facts about ethanol
Not particularly potent Low threshold motor function impaired slurred speech vomiting
Does addiction follow casual Mendelian genetics
NO - expect overlapping gene clusters with other neurobiologically based diseases
what survival rate do patients with blood alcohol of >500 mg/dL have?
~50%
definition of food security
when people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a health and active life
Pesticides - benefits and risks?
every $1 on pesticides yields $4 in crops saved
Cause acute and delayed health effects
uncertainty regarding long term effects of low-does pesticide exposures
suggested link w PD
Define pesticides
Generic term encompassing agents including herbicides and insecticides
what are gradually replacing organochlorines that have higher toxicity and longer duration ?
Organophosphates and carbamate
How are parasympathomimetics (e.g. bethanechol) prescribed and why?
Oral or subcutaneous
NOT i.m or i.v due to 2 reasons:
intermediate metabolism y cholinesterase
and cholinergic crisis - muscle weakness and paralysis of respiratory muscles (salivation, lacrimation, urination, defecation - SLUD)
Give symptoms of anticholinesterase or organophosphate poisoning
DUMBBELESS - Diarrhea, Urination, Miosis, Bronchospasm, Bradycardia, Excitation of skeletal muscle and CNS, Lacrimation, Sweating, Salivation
What is the antidote
atropine - muscarinic antagonist + pralidoxine (chemical antagonist - to regenerate active cholinesterase)
Scopolamine ?
From nightshade
remove person’s free will
Alzheimer’s Disease - symptomology?
confusion, memory loss, impaired cognitive and emotional function, dementia
Do idiopathic variants follow causal Mendelian genetics?
NO - Expect overlapping gene clusters with other neurobiological or neurodegenerative diseases
What is AD therapy?
Correct the cholinergic dysfunction/deficit
Directly acting - cholinergic agonists (cholinomimetics)
Indirectly acting: cholinersterase inhibitors
Pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s Disease?
EXTRACELLULAR AB plaques and INTRACYTOPLASMIC neurofibrillary tangles (of tau protein)
What causes Alzheimer’s?
Neurotoxicity and neuroinflammation from peptide deposition
Give examples of drugs used to treat mild to moderate AD
Physostigmine, rivastigmine, tacrine, donepezil
anti-cholinesterase inhibitors and ethnomedicine
Herbal example for cognition benefits
anti-acetylcholinesterase activity and anti-oxidant properties of extracts and fractions of carpolobia lutea ?
dosage makes what ?
it either a poison or a remedy
Tests for behavioural changes/ memory loss
evidence of stroke, substance abuse electrolyte levels, vit B12 signs of brain damage, serum analysis IgG, IgA Urinary toxicology haemorrhage, atrophy or masses? - get MRI and electroencephalogram
What do prion protein deposits do?
Prion protein deposits in the brain in patients with sporadic or genetic forms of spongiform encephalopathy.
Misfolded and/or mutated proteins may also give rise to amyloid deposition seen in prion diseased brains
