COMPETITIVE INHIBITION OF PROCAINE CONVULSIONS IN GUINEA PIGS

¹ Dept. of Pharmacology, Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, Illinois

It has been shown that the incidence of convulsions which follow intramuscular injection of procaine in guinea pigs can be substantially reduced by preceding administration of either of the split products of procaine; namely, para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) or diethyl-aminoethanol (DEAE). A mixture of the two components is even more effective in this respect.

Certain derivatives of both PABA and DEAE possess qualitative similar action, the degree of which is dependent on their structural relations to the mother compounds. It has been shown that this protective action is specifically directed against convulsions produced by procaine and that no inhibition of peripheral local anesthetic action of procaine occurs.

Evidence has been presented to explain the phenomena observed in these experiments on the basis of competitive inhibition.