The action (or at least one action) of cyanide is to block the electron
transport chain at Complex IV. To my best knowledge, the addition of
methylene blue relieves this by providing an alternate terminal electron
receptor allowing cellular respiration to continue. Almost any biochemistry
book mentions cyanide, but I'm not sure where I heard about methylene blue
being the antidote. People who keep tropical fish also use it to combat
nitrite poisoning. Hope that helps.
--Chris
Shayne Woodward wrote:
> First I would like to thank those of you who responded so quickly to my
> question on Liquid-liquid extraction so quickly and thoroughly. I
> have another question to ask that hopefully some of you might be able
> to answer. For many years, methylene blue has been used as a
> treatment for people who have been exposed to cyanide, and recently for
> people undergoing ifosfamide chemotherapy. MB also works in this same
> manner with chloroacetaldehyde (CIAA), the main culprit of CNS toxicity
> in ifosfaide treatment. I am making an assumption that cyanide might
> in fact have analagous properties to CIAA in some respects that allow
> them to both be "neutralized" by MB. Does anyone know of the mechanism
> that is operating here, or know where I would be able to find more
> information on this organic/biochemical reaction mechanism?
>> Shayne Woodward
> Surgical Research
> Dartmouth College
> Hanover, NH
---
Christian Ross <caross at utdallas.edu> http://www.utdallas.edu/~caross
"When I hyperlinked to the free dog biscuits,
... they strongly suspected I was a dog."
