Dr.Dean *read at your own risk* Thought I would give an insight of how nerve toxins work for those tht are interestes in how sarin (the chemical suspected in syria effects people). Nerve cells are long and thin and transmit electrical impulses to other areas of your body (from the brain to the effector) they work in pairs but are seperated by a gap called a synapse. When we want to contract a muscle we send a signal from the first neuron (pre synaptic neuron) to the next (post synaptic neuron) by releasing neurotransmitters across that synapse. Once this neurotransmitter binds to the next neuron, an impulse will be generated into that nerve cell and so on untill it reaches the muscle to be contracted. To prevent our muscles from constantly contracting we need to remove that neurotransmitter from the post synaptic nerve cell. Neurotoxins prevent us from doing that and so impulses are continually sent from brain to muscle resulting in a sustained contraction I.e rigour mortis. Eventually our muscles although constantly stimulated will run out of energy and fatigue leading to total relaxation (paralysis). Since the heart and diaphragm are muscles paralysis of them leads to cardiac and pulmonary arrest/failure.
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 11:44:03 +0000
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