The Safety Factor for Neuromuscular Transmission: Effects of Dimethylsulphoxide, Cannabinoids and Synaptic Homeostasis.

BackgroundIn myasthenia gravis, impaired postsynaptic sensitivity to acetylcholine results in failure of neuromuscular transmission and fatiguing muscle weakness.ObjectiveDevelop an ex vivo muscle contraction assay to test cannabinoids and other substances that might act on the myasthenic neuromuscular junction to restore control of the muscle.MethodsTubocurarine was added to an ex vivo, mouse phrenic nerve-hemidiaphragm muscle preparation to reduce acetylcholine sensitivity. This produced a myasthenia-like decrement in twitch force during a train of 10 nerve impulses (3 / sec). Endplate potential (EPP) recordings were used to confirm and extend the findings.ResultsSurprisingly, addition to the bath of dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO), at concentrations as low as 0.1%(v/v), partially reversed the decrement in nerve-evoked force. Intracellular electrophysiology, conducted in the presence of tubocurarine, showed that DMSO increased the amplitudes of both the spontaneous miniature EPP (MEPP) and the (nerve-evoked) EPP. In the absence of tubocurarine (synaptic potentials at physiological levels), an adaptive fall in quantal content negated the DMSO-induced rise in EPP amplitude. The effects of cannabinoid receptor agonists (solubilized with DMSO) in the contraction assay do not support their further exploration as useful therapeutic agents for myasthenia gravis. CP 55,940 (a dual agonist for cannabinoid receptor types 1 and 2) reversed the beneficial effects of DMSO.

Conclusions

We demonstrate a powerful effect of DMSO upon quantal amplitude that might mislead pharmacological studies of synaptic function wherever DMSO is used as a drug vehicle. Our results also show that compounds targeting impaired neuromuscular transmission should be tested under myasthenic-like conditions, so as to avoid confounding effects of synaptic homeostasis.