Cocaine is lethal because it causes convulsions and cardiac arrhythmias.
My laboratory is trying to understand the exact mechanisms by which this toxin acts in the brain and heart to produce these adverse effects. Cocaine is destroyed in the body by several enzymes that are saturable. This means that the amount of cocaine ingested is far greater than the ability of these enzymes to process the drug. This leads to toxic blood levels of cocaine and its metabolites. I am currently evaluating the ability of an enzyme derived from human plasma to hasten the metabolic breakdown of cocaine and thus decrease its toxicity.