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This report was sited in Chem and Engineering news (12/16/96). My husband, Jamie, thought list members might be interested. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Pyridostigmine, a drug that protects against the effects of organophosphate chemical warfare agents, crosses the blood-brain barrier in mice under stress *much more easily* than it does in unstressed animals, according to a study by Israeli researchers (Nat.Med.,1 1382 (1996)). The findings may explain an earlier report that Israeli soldiers serving in the Persian Gulf War were three times more likely than expected to show central nervous system side effects of the drug. Some U.S. soldiers also received the drug. A carbamate inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase, the drug is quaternanry ammonium compound that would not be expected to pass through the tightly packed layer of endothelial cells that normally keep lipophobic molecules out of the central nervous system. However, Alon Friedman and Hermona Soreq of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Ilan Tur-kaspa of Tel-Avivi University's Sackler School of Medicine, and their colleagues find that mice that are stressed by being forced to swim require only 1/100 the dose of unstressed mice to inhibit a comparable level of acetylcholinesterase in their brains. If this effect turns out to be a general one, the researchers suggest, "these alterations in blood-brain permeability might have far-reaching clinical implications." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Many participants on this list have suggested that stress has had an impact on their PD symptoms and medication effectiveness. One wonders if testing has been done to determine how stress impacts on the metabolism of Sinemet? --------- Regards Mary Ann