Recent Advances in the Pharmacology of Toxins brings together the proceedings of the Second International Pharmacological Meeting of the International Union of Physiological Sciences, held in Prague, Czechoslovakia, on August 20-23, 1963. The meeting provided a forum for discussing advances in the understanding of the pharmacology of toxins and addressed topics ranging from antagonists of bradykinin to the mode of the spread of tetanus toxin in experimental animals. This volume is comprised of 28 chapters and begins with an analysis of the effects of toxins from microorganisms on mammalian cellular metabolism and structure, followed by a review of SRS-A, a slow-reacting substance of anaphylaxis, as a potential factor in the symptoms produced by venoms and toxins. Subsequent chapters explore the release of pharmacologically active lipids by enzymes contained in toxins; the structure and function of some enzymes in snake venoms, with reference to disulfide linkages; biochemistry and pharmacology of small-molecular compounds of cobra venom; and the role of ganglioside in the mode of action of tetanus toxin. This book will be of particular value to pharmacologists and physiologists.
