Accession Number:

AD0711697

Title:

MACULOTOXIN, A POTENT TOXIN SECRETED BY OCTOPUS MACULOSUS HOYLE,

Descriptive Note:

Corporate Author:

DEFENCE STANDARDS LABS MARIBYRNONG (AUSTRALIA)

Personal Author(s):

• Freeman,Shirley E.
• Turner,R. J.

Report Date:

1969-07-02

Pagination or Media Count:

11.0

Abstract:

The posterior salivary venom glands of the blue-ringed octopus, Octopus Hapalochlaena maculosus Hoyle have been shown to contain a neurotoxin which is pharmacologically very similar to tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin. The toxin, which has been called maculotoxin, causes hypotension, bradycardia, and respiratory paralysis in rabbits and rats. The hypotension can be temporarily reversed with l-epinephrine or l-norepinephrine. Evidence is presented which suggests that respiratory failure after intravenous injection is due to blockade of muscular nerve axons. The toxin blocks transmission in the sciatic nerve of the toad and the rat, and at low dose levels appears to have neuromuscular blocking activity. At higher dose levels the muscle membrane also becomes inexcitable. It is without significant effect on the acetylcholine-induced contraction of the chronically denervated rat diaphragm, the toad rectus abdominis, or the guinea pig ileum. Animals can be resuscitated after a marginal lethal dose by artificial ventilation alone, provided this is instituted before hypoxia becomes severe. Author

Descriptors:

• (*TOXINS AND ANTITOXINS
• *CEPHALOPODA)
• PHARMACOLOGY
• NERVOUS SYSTEM
• HYPOTENSION
• RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
• PARALYSIS
• CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES
• TOXICITY
• NERVES
• NEUROMUSCULAR TRANSMISSION
• MUSCLES
• MEMBRANES(BIOLOGY)
• PHYSIOLOGY
• PATHOLOGY
• LABORATORY ANIMALS

Subject Categories:

• Toxicology
• Pharmacology

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE