The effects of procaine, strychnine and penicillin on nociceptive neurons in leech segmental ganglia.

Procaine, strychnine and penicillin selectively depolarized the membrane potential and prolonged the action potential recorded in the lateral but not the medial nociceptive (N) cell in the hirudinid leech Macrobdella decora. In contrast, procaine did not differentiate between medial and lateral N cells in two other hirudinid leeches Hirudo medicinalis and Haemopis marmorata. In these species, the drug equally decreased the amplitude of action potentials in both types of N cells without effecting their resting membrane properties. In the nociceptive neurons of the glossiphoniid leech Haementeria ghilianii which possesses only one type of N cell, procaine produced a depolarization and prolonged the action potential. This finding indicates that the single pair of N cells in Haementeria is of the lateral type. The results suggest that the lateral type N cell in Macrobdella and Haementeria share a unique Na+-dependent conductance which is selectively opened by the local anesthetics procaine and strychnine as well as by penicillin. This conductance is either not present or insensitive to the drugs in the homologous N cells in the two other leech species examined.