Adenosine triphosphatase. Sensitive to DDT in synapses of rat brain.

The insecticide DDT selectively inhibits the action of a Na(+), K(+), Mg(2+)-adenosine triphosphatase found in the nerve ending fraction of the rat brain. As judged by the concentrations of inhibitors that give 50 percent of enzyme inhibition, DDT was approximately 1000 times more toxic than its non-insecticidal analog, 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethylene. The degrees of inhibition of this enzyme system by various toxic and nontoxic DDT analogs were closely related to a general toxicity in vivo of these compounds. Moreover, the extents of inhibition of this enzyme system by DDT were much higher at low temperatures, an indication of a causal relation between poisoning in vivo by DDT and the inhibition in vitro of the Na(+), K(+), Mg(2+)-adenosine triphosphatase system.