Abstract
Mendel and Rudney1 demonstrated that mammalian tissues may contain two distinct esterases, both capable of hydrolysing acetylcholine in vitro : a specific enzyme (‘true' cholinesterase) and a nonspecific enzyme (‘pseudo' cholinesterase). The chemically dissimilar natures of the two enzymes were indicated by their selective behaviour towards particular choline esters2 and by the selective toxic effects, on the pseudo esterase, of the dimethylcarbamate of (2-hydroxy : 5-phenylbenzyl)-trimethylammonium bromide3 and of diisopropylfluorophosphate4. Both these substances exert powerful effects on pseudocholinesterase at concentrations which are relatively ineffective against true cholinesterase.
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References
Mendel and Rudney, Biochem. J., 37, 59 (1943).
Mendel, Mundell and Rudney, Biochem. J., 38, 473 (1944).
Hawkins and Gunter, Biochem. J., 40, 192 (1946).
Mendel and Hawkins, Biochem. J., 41, xxii (1947).
Gilman and Shirley, J. Amer. Chem. Soc, 66, 888 (1944).
Bovet, Fournel and Charpentier, Thérapie, 2, 115 (1947).
Ammon, Arch. ges. Physiol., 233, 486 (1933).
Mendel and Rudney, Science, 98, 201 (1943).
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GORDON, J. N-Diethylaminoethylphenothiazine : a Specific Inhibitor of Pseudocholinesterase. Nature 162, 146 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162146a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162146a0
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