THE EFFECTS OF PRETREATMENT WITH SOMAN SIMULATOR IN THE SKELETAL-MUSCLE - DIRECT INTERACTIONS WITH ACETYLCHOLINESTERASE

Soman simulator PDP is a compound that has a chemical structure identi cal to soman, except that the fluorine atom is replaced by a methyl gr oup which makes PDP unable to bind covalently to the AChE active cente r. In rats, late mortality observed after treatment with high doses of soman could be prevented by PDP pretreatment. Such pretreatment has b een much less efficient in primates. The effect of PDP in rats has bee n explained by blocking the deposition of soman in so-called soman dep ots in which soman is stored intact and subsequently released. In this paper we demonstrate that in the presence of PDP, inhibition of rat m uscle AChE by soman is reduced in rat but not in human muscle homogena tes. This result suggests that at least part of the beneficial effects of PDP pretreatment in rat might be due to the direct interaction of PDP with AChE resulting in reduced AChE phosphorylation by soman.