The actions of suxamethonium (succinyldicholine) as an agonist and channel blocker at the nicotinic receptor of frog muscle.

1. Patch clamp methods were used to study the equilibrium and kinetic properties of the acetylcholine analogue, succinyldicholine (suxamethonium), which is used clinically as a neuromuscular blocking agent. 2. The equilibrium concentration-response curve, corrected for desensitization was estimated by measuring as the response the probability of being open of single ion channels during clusters of activity that occur between long desensitized periods. Suxamethonium (Sux) was about 7.6-fold less potent than acetylcholine (ACh) (at low concentrations), partly because of 2.9-fold lower affinity for the resting receptor, and partly because of a lower ability to activate the receptor once bound. 3. Sux was a more potent blocker of the open ion channel than ACh (equilibrium constant about 200 microM); this limited the maximum open probability to about 0.36 (at 12 degrees C and -120 mV). Individual channel blockages lasted about 65 microseconds on average. They appeared to get longer at high agonist concentration; however, a simulation method was used to show that this effect could be accounted for by the fact that at higher concentrations there are more openings that are too brief to be detected. Over the concentration range tested the effects were described by a simple open channel block mechanism. 4. No component of brief shut times could be detected other than those resulting from channel blockages. However, the results suggest that multiple channel openings (the nachschlag phenomenon) should be rare, so this is not inconsistent with previous results with other agonists. 5. Sux differed from ACh and carbachol in that it had a somewhat lower efficacy and a greater channel blocking action. However, in clinical practice channel block is unlikely to contribute to neuromuscular block to any significant extent; the main mechanism of paralysis, at least in the early stages, is probably a result of prolonged depolarization of the region of membrane surrounding the motor endplate leading to inactivation of the sodium channels therein.