High permeability of insect blood-brain barrier to alcohols demonstrated by an electrophysiological technique.
Using the anaesthetic effects of the alcohols to measure their concentration within the cockroach central nervous system, it is shown that the lower homologues have access half-times of only a few seconds. Slower access of the higher homologues is interpreted in terms of a reservoir effect resulting from their higher liposolubility.
D000200:Action Potentials / Q000187:drug effects; D000438:Alcohols / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D001812:Blood-Brain Barrier; D000440:Butanols / Q000494:pharmacology; D003058:Cockroaches; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D000431:Ethanol / Q000494:pharmacology; D005727:Ganglia, Spinal / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D000441:Hexanols / Q000494:pharmacology; D000442:Octanols / Q000494:pharmacology
D000438:Alcohols; D000440:Butanols; D000441:Hexanols; D000442:Octanols; D000431:Ethanol