Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0231530 (twitching)
 2,043 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Motor incoordination, euphoria and hallucinations are symptoms reported for humans voluntarily intoxicated by industrial solvents. An epileptic-like consciousness impairment has also been noted. The present paper describes a technique used for the experimental study of solvent intoxication in which toluene and benzene can be applied directly into the trachea of freely moving cats with chronically implanted electrodes. This technique permits the control of solvent dose and time of exposure. Results showed a 3 Hz spike-wave activity in the gyrus cinguli recording with both toluene or benzene intoxication. Furthermore, benzene inhalation produced generalized tonic-clonic seizures. These effects were dose-related. However, a sensitization period was essential for the development of such alterations, and effects showed a tendency to shortening through chronic exposures. These alterations were correlated with behavioral disturbances such as nodding, twitching and apparent hallucinations. Results are discussed regarding the sensitization period, the optimal peak of effects, and the period of tolerance development relevant to an earlier found amygdalar activation that could be correlated with other methods inducing experimental seizures, such as repetitive stimulation of the brain (kindling).
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PMID:Petit mal and grand mal seizures produced by toluene or benzene intoxication in the cat. 8 22

A method for testing a rat's physical-dependence liability to sedaditive-hypnotic agents and for evaluating that dependence was studied by using the method. Rats received phenobarbital- or barbital-admixed food on a graded-increase dosage schedule over 30-40 days. Manifestations of CNS-suppressing action of either drug (e.g., systemic muscle relaxation, motor incoordination, staggering gait, and ptosis) persisted day and night during the drug medication. Twenty-four to 48 h after withdrawal of either drug, abstinence symptoms (e.g., muscle fasciculation, nuchal twitching, vocalization, increased irritability, ataxia, hyperthermia, and clonic-tonic and grand mal-type convulsions) were evidenced in all animals (N = 6), some of which died after convulsions. These withdrawal signs in rats were classified and found to be closely correlated with the magnitude of weight loss during the withdrawal. The calssification provides a basis for quantitatively assessing physical-dependence liability. The data obtained in the present study suggest that rats, like dogs and monkeys, are suitable experimental animals for tests in early stages of dependence liability, and that the administration of drug-admixed food is a useful method of developing dependence on both barbiturate and morphine-type drugs.
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PMID:Experimental barbiturate dependence. I. Barbiturate dependence development in rats by drug-admixed food (DAF) method. 41 46

The purpose of the present study was to investigate physical dependence upon diazepam systematically in two inbred strains of rats, Lewis (LEW) and Fischer 344 (F344). Rats were chronically fed food containing diazepam on an escalating drug dosage schedule, from 1 and 2 to 12 mg/g of food, over a period of 30 days. During treatment, the growth curve in LEW and F344 rats was suppressed compared with the respective controls. Motor incoordination was evaluated by a rotarod performance test. The ranking of the motor incoordination during the final concentration of diazepam was as follows: F344 greater than LEW. After substitution of normal food for the diazepam-admixed food, various signs of diazepam withdrawal occurred 16-120 h later. These signs included vocalization, irritability, muscle rigidity, ear-twitching, Straub's tail, piloerection, fascicular twitch, tremor, convulsion, and death. The incidences of vocalization, ear-twitching, piloerection, and tremor in F344 were significantly higher than those in LEW rats. Furthermore, two of six F344 rats showed spontaneous convulsions and one rat died of convulsions. Overall withdrawal scores were significantly greater in F344 (16.0) than in LEW (6.3) rats. These results suggest that diazepam withdrawal severity is strongly influenced by genetic factors, and F344 rats are highly susceptible to dependence upon benzodiazepines.
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PMID:Genetic differences in the development of physical dependence upon diazepam in Lewis and Fischer 344 inbred rat strains. 143 78

In 1996, a new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD)-a disease that causes lack of coordination, muscle twitching or jerking, dementia, and, eventually, death-suddenly appeared in Great Britain. It is believed that the victims contracted the disease from eating the beef of cattle stricken with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. As of December 1997, at least 25 people in the United Kingdom and France have contracted vCJD.
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PMID:Cows for fear: is BSE a threat to human health? Bovine spongiform encephalopathy. 948 78

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) occur when excess nutrients allow dinoflagellates to reproduce in large numbers. Marine animals are affected by blooms when algal toxins are ingested or inhaled. In the Gulf of Mexico, near annual blooms of Karenia brevis release a suite of compounds (brevetoxins) that cause sea turtle morbidity and mortality. The primary treatment at rehabilitation facilities for brevetoxin-exposed sea turtles is supportive care, and it has been difficult to design alternative treatment strategies without an understanding of the effects of brevetoxins in turtles in vivo. Previous studies using the freshwater turtle as a model species showed that brevetoxin-3 impacts the nervous and muscular systems, and is detoxified and eliminated primarily through the liver, bile, and feces. In this study, freshwater turtles (Trachemys scripta) were exposed to brevetoxin (PbTx-3) intratracheally at doses causing clear systemic effects, and treatment strategies aimed at reducing the postexposure neurological and muscular deficits were tested. Brevetoxin-exposed T. scripta displayed the same behaviors as animals admitted to rehabilitation centers for toxin exposure, ranging from muscle twitching and incoordination to paralysis and unresponsiveness. Two treatment regimes were tested: cholestyramine, a bile acid sequestrant; and an intravenous lipid emulsion treatment (Intralipidt) that provides an expanded circulating lipid volume. Cholestyramine was administered orally 1 hr and 6 hr post PbTx-3 exposure, but this regime failed to increase toxin clearance. Animals treated with Intralipid (100 mg/kg) 30 min after PbTx-3 exposure had greatly reduced symptoms of brevetoxicosis within the first 2 hr compared with animals that did not receive the treatment, and appeared fully recovered within 24 hr compared with toxin-exposed control animals that did not receive Intralipid. The results strongly suggest that Intralipid treatment for lipophilic toxins such as PbTx-3 has the potential to reduce morbidity and mortality in HAB-exposed sea turtles.
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PMID:INTRAVENOUS LIPID EMULSION TREATMENT REDUCES SYMPTOMS OF BREVETOXICOSIS IN TURTLES (TRACHEMYS SCRIPTA). 3112 Jun 60