Experimental tests of hypotheses about neurochemical mechanisms underlying behavioral tolerance to the anticholinesterase, diisopropyl fluorophosphate.

Neurochemical and psychopharmacological studies of rats were designed to examine four hypotheses which have been proposed to account for the development of behavioral tolerance to the anticholinesterase, diisopropyl fluorophosphate (DFP). The fact that the activity of the enzymes, adenosine triphosphatase, alkaline phosphatase and cytochrome oxidase, did not change concomitantly with behavioral measures during chronic treatment with DFP suggests that nonspecific metabolic changes are unlikely mechanisms of behavioral tolerance. Similarly, a lack of change in choline acetylase activity coupled with constantly high acetylcholine levels (140%) and low cholinesterase activity (28.5%) tends to eliminate end-product inhibition of acetylcholine synthesis as a primary mechanism of tolerance to DFP. Alpha-Methyl-p-tyrosine in doses to 150 mg/kg affected the behaviors of control and DFP-treated rats to a comparable degree, offering no support for the hypothesis that a redundant adrenergic system may replace the cholinergic system during the development of tolerance to DFP. In contrast to these various negative findings, pilocarpine was less effective in suppressing the responding of rats tolerant to DFP than that of control subjects. This confirms other evidence indicating that a decreased sensitivity of cholinergic (muscarinic) receptors is one mechanism underlying the development of tolerance to DFP.