Subcutaneous or intravenous administration of physostigmine improved the copying of geometric figures in three out of six patients with presumed Alzheimer's disease who showed a remarkable constructional disturbance. This improvement reached its maximum 30 to 60 minutes after the physostigmine administration. These results not only provide further evidence supporting the hypothesis that central...

Administration of pilocarpine or physostigmine to rats treated with lithium chloride produced sustained limbic seizures, widespread brain damage, and increased concentrations of D-myo-inositol-1-phosphate (a metabolite of the phosphoinositides, lipids involved in membrane receptor function) in the brain. The syndrome was preventable with atropine. The physostigmine doses and concentrations of b...

Heptylphysostigmine is in advanced clinical trial as a drug for Alzheimer's disease. 8-Morpholinooctylphysostigmine and 8-(cis-2,6-dimethylmorpholino)octylphysostigmine are currently undergoing pre-clinical evaluation. The mechanism of action of these compounds in the inhibition of acetylcholinesterase has been investigated. All the examined compounds display non competitive-like kinetics of in...

We studied the interaction of disopyramide, quinidine, and procainamide with cardiac muscarinic receptors. In electrophysiological experiments, the effects of disopyramide, quinidine, procainamide, and atropine were determined on spontaneously depolarizing guinea pig right atria (GPRA) both in the presence and absence of pharmacologically induced (physostigmine) cholinergic stimulation. All fou...

The present study investigated the effects of subcutaneous (sc) and intracerebroventricular (icv) injections of physostigmine (a cholinesterase inhibitor), atropine (an antagonist of muscarinic cholinergic receptors) and hexamethonium (an antagonist of nicotinic cholinergic receptors) on the acute corneal nociception in rats. Local application of 5 M NaCl solution on the corneal surface of the ...

DAVIS, J. W., R. K. THOMAS, JR. AND H. E. ADAMs. Interactions of scopolamine and physostigmine with ECS and one trial learning. PHYSIOL. BEHAV. 6 (3) 219-222, 1971.-Twelve groups of 10 rats were trained on a one-trial, passive avoidance task and were tested for retention four hr later. Six groups received electroconvulsive shock (ECS) immediately following the learning trial, and the remaining ...

The purpose of these experiments was to determine whether muscarinic cholinergic agonists exerted a negative chronotropic effect in the absence of endogenous norepinephrine in isolated guinea pig ventricular myocardial strips. The chronotropic response to physostigmine (10(-6) M) in control, reserpine-pretreated animals, and in the presence of increased norepinephrine release induced by superfu...

Neocortical cholinergic afferents are proposed to influence both selective attention and emotional processing. In a study of healthy adults we used event-related fMRI while orthogonally manipulating attention and emotionality to examine regions showing effects of cholinergic modulation by the anticholinesterase physostigmine. Either face or house pictures appeared at task-relevant locations, wi...

Clinical toxicology is a rapidly evolving discipline. Each new pharmaceutical agent, illicit drug, industrial chemical, and household product carries the potential for human toxicity. In addition, combinations of these agents offer limitless possibilities for adverse events, all of which need to be interpreted and shared. Case reports provide the perfect forum for the initial discussion of thes...