The effects of verapamil on the elimination of soman in rabbit blood and distribution in mouse brain and diaphragm by determining the concentration of P(-)soman using the chirasil capillary gas chromatographic analysis method were studied in order to study the effects of verapamil on the metabolic detoxification of soman. Verapamil (10 mg kg(-1), im, 30 min before soman administration) could significantly reduce the concentration of P(-)soman in rabbit blood at 15, 60, 90, 120, 180 and 240 s after soman injection (43.2 microg kg(-1), iv) as compared to soman-treated control animal respectively. Toxicokinetics parameters showed verapamil could increase clearance rate from 20.8+/-1.51 to 44.3+/-7.0 ml kg(-1)s(-1) and reduce AUC of P(-)soman from 2.08+/-0.151 to 0.996+/-0.172 mg s l(-1). For experiments in mice, verapamil could reduce the concentration P(-)soman in diaphragm from 74.7, 70.5, 88.7 to 41.1, 39.0, 49.3 ng g(-1) at the time of 30, 90, 120 s after intoxication of soman subcutaneously vs. soman control respectively, but it had no influence on the concentration of free P(-)soman in brain. Verapamil accelerated the elimination of P(-)soman in the rabbits blood and reduced the distribution of P(-)soman in the mouse diaphragm.
Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.