Microwave facilitation of methylatropine antagonism of central cholinomimetic drug effects med./bio.

Employment of a pharmacologic assay designed specifically to assess small alterations in site-specific areas of the CNS. The assay employs centrally acting cholinergic agonists (pilocarpine and oxotremorine). Blockade of this central activity is produced by the muscarinic antagonist methylatropine (a compound that is thought not to cross the blood-brain barrier and that has normally no measurable CNS activity at the doses employed in this study). It should be investigated if a change in methylatropine availability to central muscarinic receptors occurs following microwave exposure.

• animal
• mouse/ICR

A highly sensitive pharmacological assay system has been devised that demonstrates an increase in the central activity of an agent normally excluded by the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The sensitivity and the specificity are supportive of an alteration in BBB function induced by microwave irradiation.