NEURONAL-BASED ASSAY AND DETECTION OF LOCAL-ANESTHETICS USING ELECTRICALLY STIMULATED CRAYFISH WALKING LEG NERVES

This report demonstrates the use of the nerve bundle from the crayfish walking leg for the detection and assay of local anesthetics (LAs). D etection is achieved by monitoring the disappearance of the compound a ction potential (CAP) upon application of the local anesthetics to the nerves, pinned in a specially designed flow cell. CAP firing is induc ed with an electrical current pulse applied to the nerve bundle. Dose- response curves for the LAs tetracaine, lidocaine and procaine are con structed and factors which affect the detection are discussed. The app lication of this procedure to the screening for neurotoxicity and neur omodulatory activity of new drugs and natural product extracts is prop osed.