Like some of the chemical weapons, biological weapons may also be useful as area denial weapons. These agents may be lethal or non-lethal, and may be targeted against a single individual, a group of people, or even an entire population.
Acetylcholine is a chemical messenger, a neurotransmitter, released by nerve cells in many parts of the peripheral nervous system. It controls the contraction of all skeletal or voluntary muscles, for instance. It also affects the contraction of smooth and cardiac muscle.
(5) Acetylcholine causes the electrical resting potential of the muscle fibre membrane to change, and this then initiates a new action potential that passes in both directions along the surface of the muscle fibre. (6) The action potential spreads deep inside the muscle fibre, carried by transverse tubules.