
Nerve Agents: What Are They and How Do They Work? - apancik
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nerve-agents-what-are-they-and-how-do-they-work/
======
Chocobean
Very nice history.

I couldn't understand the "how AChE works" portion, but found this article and
its diagrams helpful.
[https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/weap.html](https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/weap.html)
near as I can understand it, our entire body including heart and lungs work by
cells sending messages to and from the nervous system. When the nervous system
is no longer able to rely messages, our vital organs stop working. So if our
nervous system is like a chain of inbox/outbox message relay system, the
letters are ACh. When one cell's axon sends an ACh to the next cell, the next
cell's inbox becomes full and nothing else can be received until it's cleared.
AChE is the enzyme that clears a full inbox. Nerve agents bind to the site on
an AChE that grabs ACh. Without the ability for these AChE protein to "clears
the inbox", our nervous system cells can't communicate anymore, stopping these
messages entirely.

I'm not sure exactly what ACh actually does other than "activate", but since
they are used by central and peripheral nervous system, I'm guessing it's bad
news bear. Little more detail here

[https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/diaz.html](https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/diaz.html)

