Fifth Mississippi State Conference on Differential Equations and
Computational Simulations,
Electron. J. Diff. Eqns., Conf. 10, 2002, pp. 89-99.
Modelling the interactions of mixtures of organophosphorus insecticides with
cholinesterase
Russell. L. Carr, Howard W. Chambers, Janice E. Chambers,
Seth F. Oppenheimer, & Jason R. Richardson
Abstract:
The organophosphorus (OP) insecticides are one of the most widely used and
important insecticide classes. These insecticides exert toxicity through
inhibition of the critical nervous system enzyme cholinesterase (ChE) which
functions to rapidly destroy the ubiquitous neurotransmitter acetylcholine.
When ChE is inhibited, the acetylcholine accumulates, causing hyperactivity
within the cholinergic pathways. Considerable effort has gone into assessing
the risks of various OP insecticides. Unfortunately, people are often
exposed to different OP insecticides in different dosages at different or
overlapping times. The usual statistical methods seem inadequate to the task
of assessing the effect of OP mixtures. This paper will discuss a simple
model using systems of ordinary differential equations. Using this model, we
have had success in predicting the effect of cumulative in vitro OP compound
exposure in terms of ChE inhibition using data from experiments measuring
ChE inhibition by a single OP compound. We will describe our model and
compare our simulations to in vitro experiments where binary mixtures have
been used.
Published February 28, 2003.
Subject classifications: 92C45.
Key words: Reaction kinetics, reaction modelling.
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Russell L. Carr
Center for Environmental Health Sciences
P.O. Box 6100
Mississippi State University, MS 39762, USA
e-mail: rlcarr@cvm.msstate.edu
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Howard W. Chambers
Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology
P.O. Box 9775, Mississippi State University, MS 39762, USA
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Janice E. Chambers
Center for Environmental Health Sciences
P.O. Box 6100
Mississippi State University, MS 39762, USA
e-mail: chambers@cvm.msstate.edu |
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Seth F. Oppenheimer
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Drawer MA
Mississippi State University, MS 39762, USA
e-mail: seth@math.msstate.edu
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Jason R. Richardson
Center for Neurodegenerative Disease
Emory University
Whitehead Biomedical Research Building 575
615 Michael Street, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
e-mail: jricha3@emory.edu
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