Chloral hydrate causes breakdown of polysomes in Chlamydomonas reinhardi in vivo.

Background and aims—The colons of patients with pneumatosis cystoides coli produce excessive H2. Exposure to alkyl halides could explain this. Six consecutive patients who had pneumatosis cystoides coli while taking chloral hydrate (1–5+ g/day) are reported. Patients 2 and 3 were investigated after they had ceased chloral hydrate treatment. One produced methane, the other did not. (Pneumatosis cystoides coli patients are non-methanogenic according to the literature.) Both had overnight fasting breath H2 of less than 10 ppm. A literature review disclosed just one patient who was using chloral at the time of diagnosed pneumatosis cystoides coli, but an epidemic of the disease in workers exposed to trichloroethylene.Methods—(i) In vitro experiments with human faeces: chloral or closely related alkyl halides were added to anaerobic faecal cultures derived from four methane-producing and three non-methanogenic human subjects. H2 and CH4gases were measured. (ii) In vivo animal experiment: chloral hydrate was added to drinking water of four Wistar rats, and faecal H2 compared with control rats.Results—Alkyl halides increased H2 up to 900 times in methanogenic and 10 times in non-methanogenic faecal cultures. The Ki of chloral was 0.2 mM. Methanogenesis was inhibited in concert with the increase in net H2. In the rat experiment, chloral hydrate increased H2 10 times, but did not cause pneumatosis.Conclusions—Chloral and trichloroethylene are alkyl halides chemically similar to chloroform, a potent inhibitor of H2 consumption by methanogens and acetogens. These bacteria are the most important H2-consuming species in the colon. It is postulated that exposure to these alkyl halides increases net H2 production, which sets the scene for “counterperfusion supersaturation” and the formation of gas cysts. In recent times, very low prescribing rates for chloral have caused primary pneumatosis cystoides to become extremely rare. As with primary pneumatosis, secondary pneumatosis cystoides, which occurs if there is small bowel bacterial overgrowth distal to a proximally located gut obstruction, is predicted by counterperfusion supersaturation. “Inherent unsaturation” due to metabolism of O2 is a safety factor, which could explain why gas bubbles do not form more often in tissue with high H2 tension.

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Uncoupling of flow and metabolism by chloral hydrate: a rat in-vivo autoradiographic study

Neuroreport ◽

10.1097/wnr.0b013e328302ee46 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 219-222 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Miki Uematsu ◽

Masashi Takasawa ◽

Rie Hosoi ◽

Osamu Inoue

Keyword(s):

Chloral Hydrate ◽

Autoradiographic Study

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Chloral hydrate inhibits protein synthesis in vivo

Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Nucleic Acids and Protein Synthesis ◽

10.1016/0005-2787(71)90101-8 ◽

1971 ◽

Vol 238 (2) ◽

pp. 338-342 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Daniel McMahon ◽

William Blaschko

Keyword(s):

Protein Synthesis ◽

Chloral Hydrate

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Tissue Distribution of Engeletin in Mice by UPLC-MS/MS

Current Pharmaceutical Analysis ◽

10.2174/1573412914666180501114659 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 15 (6) ◽

pp. 604-611 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Weijian Ye ◽

Chongliang Lin ◽

Guanyang Lin ◽

Ruijie Chen ◽

Wei Sun ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Chloral Hydrate ◽

Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography ◽

Tissue Homogenate ◽

Spectrometry Method ◽

Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry ◽

Multiple Reactions ◽

Limit Of Quantitation ◽

Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass ◽

The Brain

Introduction: Engeletin is the main active component in the engelhardia leaf that promotes circulation and removes stasis, and has hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, and anti-inflammatory actions. The aim of this study was to develop an ultra-performance liquid chromatography- tandem mass spectrometry method to detect engeletin in plasma and tissues and investigate its absorption, distribution, and mechanism in mice, which could provide very useful information for its pharmacological effect in vivo. Materials and Methods: Twenty-five mice were intraperitoneally injected with 20 mg/kg engeletin, and five mice were sacrificed using 4% chloral hydrate 0.25, 0.5, 2, 4, and 6 h later. The tissues (brain, kidney, heart, liver, spleen, and lung) and blood were collected. Acetonitrile precipitation was applied to remove protein and further process the mouse plasma and tissue homogenate samples. Multiple reactions monitoring mode in negative mode was used to quantify the engeletin. Results and Conclusion: Linearity of engeletin in plasma and tissues was good (R2 > 0.995), within the range of 2-2,000 ng/mL in plasma and 2-2,000 ng/g in tissues, and the lower limit of quantitation was 2 ng/mL in plasma and 2 ng/g in tissues. Inter-day precision of engeletin in plasma or tissues (brain, kidney, heart, liver, spleen, and lung) was < 14%, and intra-day precision was < 15%. After the mice were intraperitoneally injected with engeletin (20 mg/kg), the distribution in kidney and liver was the highest, followed by blood, spleen, lung, heart, and brain. Engeletin concentration in the brain was low, suggesting that engeletin can penetrate through the blood brain barrier, which could also help with engeletin investigations of the brain.

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