Batrachotoxin - Toxicity

Toxicity

Extrapolating from the LD₅₀ in rats, the lethal dose of this alkaloid in humans is estimated to be 1 to 2 µg/kg. Thus, the lethal dose for a 68 kg (150 pound) person would be approximately 100 micrograms, or equivalent to the weight of two grains of ordinary (fine) table salt (NaCl). Batrachotoxin is thus around fifteen times more potent than curare (another arrow poison used by South American Indians and derived from plants of the genera Strychnos and Curarea), and about ten times more potent than tetrodotoxin, from the puffer fish.

The toxin is released through colourless or milky secretions from glands located on the back and behind the ears of frogs from the genus Phyllobates. When one of these frogs is agitated, feels threatened or is in pain, the toxin is reflexively released through several canals.

As a neurotoxin it affects the nervous system. Neurological function depends on depolarization of nerve and muscle fibres due to increased sodium ion permeability of the excitable cell membrane. Lipid-soluble toxins such as batrachotoxin act directly on sodium ion channels involved in action potential generation and by modifying both their ion selectivity and voltage sensitivity.

This has a direct effect on the peripheral nervous system (PNS). Batrachotoxin in the PNS produces increased permeability (selective and irreversible) of the resting cell membrane to sodium ions, without changing potassium or calcium concentration. This influx of sodium depolarizes the formerly polarized cell membrane. Batrachotoxin also alters the ion selectivity of the ion channel by increasing the permeability of the channel toward larger cations. Voltage-sensitive sodium channels become persistently active at the resting membrane potential. Batrachotoxin kills by permanently blocking nerve signal transmission to the muscles.

In laymans terms, Batrachotoxin binds to and irreversibly opens the sodium channels of nerve cells such they cannot reset. The neuron is no longer capable of 'firing' (sending messages) and this results in paralysis.

Although generally classified as a neurotoxin, batrachotoxin has marked effects on heart muscles. These effects are similar to the cardiotoxic effects of digitalis (digoxin), a poison found in the foxglove plant. Batrachotoxin interferes with heart conduction, causing arrhythmias, extrasystoles, ventricular fibrillation and other changes which lead to cardiac arrest. Batrachotoxin induces a massive release of acetylcholine in nerves and muscles and destruction of synaptic vesicles, as well. Batrachotoxin R is more toxic than related batrachotoxinin A.

Structural changes in nerves and muscles are due to a massive influx of sodium ions, which produces osmotic alterations. It has been suggested that there may also be an effect on the central nervous system, although it is not currently known what such an effect may be.

Batrachotoxin activity is temperature-dependent, with a maximum activity at 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Its activity is also more rapid at an alkaline pH, which suggests that the unprotonated form may be more active.