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RE: Pretty blue rings of death, the bacterial basis for the octopus's venom
Your blog, as usual, is entertaining and informative.
As I was reading I thought about a neurological disease, VKG autoimmune encephalitis. A hallmark of this disease is hyponatremia. Is it possible that the immune system acts on sodium pumps in a way similar to the toxin? Depressed respiration is not a symptom of this disorder. But the effects are long-lasting and profound if immune suppressant drugs are not administered quickly.
The snake link was a fascinating read :)
@agmoore Fascinating idea, I do not know enough about this to say with any certainty. It looks like it's caused by antibodies tagging the pumps, so the symptoms are similar. While the reason is the same "pumps are broken", the method of action is quite different. Bad analogy: you're not getting to the mall if the bus is full or gets hit by a meteor.
Actually the analogy is pretty good, because I understand your point.