this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2023
845 points (98.1% liked)

Comic Strips

12619 readers
3080 users here now

Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.

The rules are simple:

Web of links

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] DrRatso@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago

There are a variety of ways in which our bodies attune to constant stimulus, in the case of neural stimulus, there are a variety of mechcanisms with the common goal of reducing activation of the neural pathway. You could have less receptors, more breakdown of the stimulating compound, increased cell activation treshold or downstream changes that similarly just reduce the ability for the signal to cause effects further along the chain.

Receptor or physical clogging generally (afaik) does not happen with substances we encounter normally, however it is a common tactic in pharmacology, where we might use a drug that binds to a receptor without effect and prevents the active compound from binding.

Or in the case of Succinylcholine, it binds, causes the normal action, but then prevents the normal molecule from binding and causing the action again - this is used to achieve rapid muscle paralysis and is both a poison as well as a common drug used for anesthesia.