In vivo effect of magnesium chloride?

[engelbert_buxbaum4 at my-deja.com]

In article <8trtp6$3fv$1 at nnrp1.deja.com>,
  mikemikemike at my-deja.com wrote:
>  Magnesium chloride is commonly used to sedate organisms
> such as annelids, cnidarians etc.
>
> The question is: how does it work?
>
> I've gathered that magnesium has the opposite effect of calcium,
> suppressing the production of acethylcholinesterase, but i'm not
> sure if that is the mechanism in effect when used as a sedative.
>

I do not know how it works, but acetylcholine esterase production can
not be the primary target. Narcosis is rapid (sec to min), enzyme
translation shut down would be a much slower process, as the enzyme
already present in the synaptic gap has a considerable life time.


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