Mass Spectrometric Identification of Chemical Warfare Agent Adducts with Biological Macromolecule for Verification of Their Exposure

Mass Spectrometric Detection of Carcinogen Adducts

Genotoxic carcinogens interact with nucleic acids and proteins to yield covalently bound products (adducts), the quantitative determination of which has been proposed as a biomonitor of human exposure to carcinogens. Mass spectrometry is playing a leading role both in the structural characterisation and in the quantitative determination of these carcinogen adducts. In particular electrospray io...

[Chemical and biological warfare].

History of chemical and biological warfare agents.

Chemical and biological warfare agents constitute a low-probability, but high-impact risk both to the military and to the civilian population. The use of hazardous materials of chemical or biological origin as weapons and for homicide has been documented since ancient times. The first use of chemicals in terms of weapons of mass destruction goes back to World War I, when on April 22, 1915 large...

[Decontamination of chemical and biological warfare agents].

Chemical and biological warfare agents (CBWA's) are diverse in nature; volatile acute low-molecular-weight toxic compounds, chemical warfare agents (CWA's, gaseous choking and blood agents, volatile nerve gases and blister agents, nonvolatile vomit agents and lacrymators), biological toxins (nonvolatile low-molecular-weight toxins, proteinous toxins) and microbes (bacteria, viruses, rickettsiae...

Identification of endogenous electrophiles by means of mass spectrometric determination of protein and DNA adducts.

Monitoring exposure to alkylating agents may be achieved by quantitatively determining the adduct levels formed with nucleic acids and/or proteins. One of the most significant results arising from the application of this approach has been the discovery in control populations of "background" levels of alkylated nucleic acid bases or alkylated proteins, in particular hemoglobin (Hb). In the case ...