Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T17:42:11.519Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Cholinergic inhibition of muscle fibres isolated from Schistosoma mansoni (Trematoda: Digenea)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

T. A. Day
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
G-Z. Chen
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
C. Miller
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
M. Tian
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
J. L. Bennett
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
R. A. Pax*
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Tel: 517-353-5447. Fax: 517-432-2789. Email: pax@pilot.msu.edu

Summary

Cholinergic compounds inhibit FMRFamide-induced contractions in dispersed muscle fibres isolated from adult Schistosoma mansoni. Acetylcholine (ACh) was the most effective cholinergic agonist tested with an EC50 < 100 nM. Less effective were propionylcholine and arecoline with EC50 < 1 μM and butyrylcholine and carbachol with EC50 < 10μM. Choline, muscarine, pilocarpine, nicotine, DMPP (1,1-dimethylphenylpiperazine ) and levamisole were all ineffective. Amongst tested antagonists, d-tubocurarine (100μM), mecamylamine (1 mM), atropine (1 mM), scopolamine (1 mM) and quinuclidinyl benzilate (10 μM) were all ineffective. Bicuculline, picrotoxin and strychnine were also ineffective. However α-bungarotoxin, at 100 nM, was able to block the inhibitory ACh effect. From these data it appears that the cholinergic receptor on the schistosome muscle fibres may be of the nicotinic type, but that its pharmacology is different from that of nicotinic receptors of vertebrates as well as of nematodes or a variety of other invertebrates.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Blair, K. L. & Anderson, P. A. V. (1994). Physiological and pharmacological properties of muscle cells isolated from the flatworm, Bdelloura candida (Tricladida). Parasitology 109, 325–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bueding, E., Schiller, E. L. & Burgeois, J. C. (1967). Some physiological biochemical and morphologic effects of tris (p-aminophenil) carbonium salts (TAC) on Schistosoma mansoni. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 16, 500–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chance, M. R. A. & Mansour, T. E. (1953). A contribution to the pharmacology of movement in the liver fluke. British Journal of Pharmacology 8, 134–8.Google Scholar
Comacho, M., Alsford, S., Jones, A. & Agnew, A. (1995). Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors on the surface of the blood fluke Schistosoma. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology 71, 127–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darlison, M. G., Hutton, M. L. & Harvey, R. J. (1993). Molluscan ligand-gated ion-channel receptors. In Comparative Molecular Neurobiology,(ed. Pinchon, Y.), pp. 4864. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.Google Scholar
Day, T. A., Bennett, J. L. & Pax, R. A. (1994 a). Serotonin and its requirement for maintenance of contractility in muscle fibres isolated from Schistosoma mansoni. Parasitology 108, 425–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Day, T. A., Maule, A. G., Shaw, C., Halton, D. W., Moore, S., Bennett, J. L. & Pax, R. A. (1994 b). Platyhelminth FMRFamide-related peptides (FaRPs) contract Schistosoma mansoni (Trematoda: Digenea) muscle fibres in vitro. Parasitology 109, 455–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Day, T. A., Orr, N., Bennett, J. L. & Pax, R. A. (1993). Voltage-gated currents in muscle cells of Schistosoma mansoni. Parasitology 106, 471–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fleming, J. T., Tornoe, C., Riina, H. A., Coadwell, J., Lewis, J. A. & Satelle, D. B. (1993). Acetylcholine receptor molecules of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. In Comparative Molecular Neurobiology, (ed. Pinchon, Y.), pp. 6580. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fripp, P. J. (1967). Histochemical localization of esterase activity in schistosomes. Experimental Parasitology 21, 380–90.Google Scholar
Grimmelikhuijzen, C. J. P. & Westfall, J. A. (1995). The nervous systems of Cnidarians. In The Nervous Systems of Invertebrates: An Evolutionary and Comparative Approach, (ed. Breidbach, O. & Kutsch, W.), pp. 724. Boston: Birkhäuser Verlag.Google Scholar
Halton, D. W. & Jennings, J. B. (1964). Demonstration of the nervous system in the monogenetic trematode Diplozoon paradoxum Nordmann by the indoxyl acetate method for esterase. Nature, London 202, 510–11.Google Scholar
Hillman, G. (1983). The neuropharmacology of schistosomes. Pharmacology and Therapeutics 22, 103–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martin, R. J., Pennington, A. J., Duittoz, A. H., Robertson, S. & Kusel, J. R. (1991). The physiology and pharmacology of neuromuscular transmission in the nematode parasite, Ascaris suum. Parasitology 102, S41–S58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mellin, T., Busch, R., Wang, C. & Kath, G. (1983). Neuropharmacology of the parasitic trematode Schistosoma mansoni. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 32, 8393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pax, R. A. & Bennett, J. L. (1991). Neurobiology of parasitic platyhelminthes: possible solutions to the problems of correlating structure and function. Parasitology 102, S31–S39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schardein, J. L. & Waitz, J. A. (1965). Histochemical studies of esterases in cuticle and nerve cords of four cyclophyullidean cestodes. Journal of Parasitology 51, 516–18.Google Scholar
Semeyn, D. R. (1987). Physiological responses to cholinergic compounds in adult male Schistosoma mansoni. Ph.D. thesis, Michigan State University, East Lansing.Google Scholar
Walker, R. J. & Holden-Dye, L. (1989). Commentary on the evolution of transmitters, receptors and ion channels in invertebrates. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 93A, 2539.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walker, R. J. & Holden-Dye, L. (1991). Evolutionary aspects of transmitter molecules, their receptors and channels. Parasitology 102, S7–S29.Google Scholar