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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was killed using a deadly toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America, the UK and some of its European allies have said.<\/p>\n
Traces of epibatidine were found in samples from Navalny’s body and highly likely resulted in his death in a Siberian penal colony two years ago, the UK Foreign Office said.<\/p>\n
The allies said only the Russian state had the “means, motive and opportunity” to deploy this lethal toxin.<\/p>\n
The Kremlin dismissed the finding as “an information campaign”, according to Tass news agency.<\/p>\n
Epibatidine is a natural neurotoxin isolated from the skin of the Ecuadorian poison dart frog, according to toxicology expert Jill Johnson.<\/p>\n
It was “200 times more potent” than morphine, she told BBC Russian.<\/p>\n
Epibatidine can be found naturally in dart frogs in the wild in South America as well as being manufactured in a laboratory.<\/p>\n
Dart frogs in captivity do not produce this toxin and it is not found naturally in Russia, the European allies said in their statement.<\/p>\n
Species known as Anthony’s poison arrow frog and the Phantasmal poison frog are among those that secrete the toxin onto their skin.<\/p>\n
Although epibatidine has been investigated as a painkiller and for relief from painful inflammatory lung conditions, it is not used clinically because of its toxicity.<\/p>\n
This powerful chemical compound acts on nicotinic receptors in the nervous system, according to Johnson.<\/p>\n
Because it overstimulates these nerve receptors, if dosed correctly, it can cause muscle twitching, paralysis, seizures, slow heart rate, respiratory failure and ultimately death, she explained.<\/p>\n
Alastair Hay, professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds, told PA that its effects can result in breathing being blocked, and that “any person poisoned dies from suffocation”.<\/p>\n
The toxin being found in someone’s blood “suggests deliberate administration”, he added.<\/p>\n
Epibatidine toxicity can even be “increased by co-administration of certain other drugs and these combinations have been researched”, Hay said.<\/p>\n
Epibatidine is extremely rare and found in only one geographic region and only in trace amounts, Johnson said.<\/p>\n
It is understood the dart frog referred to by the UK Foreign Office and others was Anthony’s poison arrow frog, a species endemic to Ecuador and Peru.<\/p>\n
The frogs produce the chemical through eating the right foods to produce alkaloids – a type of organic compound – that make epibatidine and accumulate it in their skin. If the frog’s diet changes, its epibatidine reserves will be depleted.<\/p>\n
“Finding a wild frog in the right place, eating exactly the food needed to produce the right alkaloids, is almost impossible… almost,” Johnson said.<\/p>\n
“This is an incredibly rare method of human poisoning. The only other cases of epibatidine poisoning I know of were laboratory-based and non-fatal.”<\/p>\n
European laboratories confirmed Navalny died from the obscure poison, the allies said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Moscow has previously claimed Navalny died of natural causes, though Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya has consistently argued her husband was “murdered” by poisoning.<\/p>\n
The Russian embassy in London denied Moscow was involved in Navalny’s death and described the announcement as “feeble-mindedness of Western fabulists” and “necro-propaganda”.<\/p>\n
Kremlin spokesperson Maria Zakharova was quoted by Russian state-run news agency Tass as saying: “All the talks and statements are an information campaign aimed at distracting attention from the West’s pressing problems.”<\/p>\n
At the time of his death, Navalny had been in jail for three years and had latterly been transferred to an Arctic penal colony.<\/p>\n
According to Russian accounts, the 47-year-old took a short walk, said he felt unwell, then collapsed and never regained consciousness.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n