Applications of cholinesterase inhibitors

Organophosphates are active not only against acetylcholinesterase but also serine proteases - which is obviously due to the shared catalytic mechanism. DFP is actually being used as a protease inhibitor in biotechnology. Another inhibitor that shares its mode of action but is less dangerous (because it is not volatile, and the enzyme adducts it forms are less stable) is PMSF (phenylmethylsulfone fluoride). You may have encountered it in one or the other research lab it is commonly added to crude cell extracts in order to minimize enzymatic breakdown of proteins during purification. 

This treatment must be combined with more immediately effective measures such as mechanic respiration. The most serious and life-threatening consequence of general neuromuscular blockade is, of course, the inability to breathe. 

Although all three mediators occur both peripherally and centrally, dopamine and norepinephrine are the main ones found as transmitters in the brain, whereas norepinephrine and epinephrine are more important than dopamine in the periphery. Norepinephrine occurs in both synapses and in the adrenal gland, whereas epinephrine is mainly found in the adrenal gland and thus really is a hormone more than a transmitter. 

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Cortex - ACh-sensitive cells have also been described for the cerebral cortex, particularly the visual24 and somato-sensory areas25, and for cerebellar26, 27 and linibic28 cortex. In the visual cortex, the effects of light flashes could be potentiated by application of cholinesterase inhibitors. However, in none of the cortical areas, can the precise pathway by vMch such presumptive ACh-containing neurons arises and distributes itself, be determined with an/ accuracy. 

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