In the wake of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., the threat posed by chemical and biological weapons has instantaneously evolved from hypothetical nightmare to clear and present danger. Under this new set of circumstances, any addition to the body of scientific knowledge about the health effects of chemical or biological agents is particularly timely...

OBJECTIVES This study describes exposures to military veterans who participated between 1941 and 1989 in British research at Porton Down on the effects of exposure to chemical warfare agents and to defences against those agents. The study is part of a programme of epidemiological research initiated in response to service veterans' concerns about possible long-term health effects of their partic...

Acetyl cholinesterase (AChE) and butyryl cholinesterase (BChE) are two known enzymes in the body with ability to hydrolyze acetylcholine. While AChE plays crucial role in acetylcholine mediated neurotransmission, BChE is secreted from livers to plasma and biological role of the enzyme is not fully understood [1]. The both cholinesterases are very sensitive to inhibition by nerve agents such as ...

Warfare neurotoxicants such as sarin, soman or VX, are organophosphorus compounds which irreversibly inhibit cholinesterase. High-dose exposure with nerve agents (NA) is known to produce seizure activity and related brain damage, while less about the effects of acute sub-lethal dose exposure. The aim this study was characterize behavioral, neuroinflammatory modifications at different time point...

Although the clinical manifestations of acute sarin poisoning have been reported in detail, no comprehensive study of the chronic physical and psychiatric effects of acute sarin poisoning has been carried out. To clarify the chronic effects of sarin on the nervous system, a cross-sectional epidemiologic study was conducted 3 years after the Tokyo subway sarin attack. Subjects consisted of the r...

Electronic structure and molecular dynamics calculations were performed on the reaction systems O((3)P) + sarin and O((3)P) + dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP), a sarin simulant. Transition state geometries, energies, and heats of reaction for the major reaction pathways were determined at several levels of theory, including AM1, B3LYP/6-311+G(d,p), and CBS-QB3. The major reaction pathways for ...

Hens treated with Mipafox (10 mg/kg, sc), sarin (50 micrograms/kg, sc) or parathion (1 mg/kg, sc) daily for 10 days exhibited severe, moderate and no ataxia respectively on 14th day after the start of exposure. The neurotoxic esterase (NTE) activity was significantly inhibited in the brain, spinal cord and platelets of hens treated with mipafox or sarin whereas no change was noticed with parath...

We hypothesize that a single exposure to an LD(50) dose of sarin induces widespread early neuropathological changes in the adult brain. In this study, we evaluated the early changes in the adult brain after a single exposure to different doses of sarin. Adult male rats were exposed to sarin by a single intramuscular injection at doses of 1, 0.5, 0.1 and 0.01 x LD(50). Twenty-four hours after th...

Organophosphorus inhibitors of cholinesterases (commonly called organophosphates, OP) are used in industry as softening agents, hydraulic liquids, lubricant additives, plasticizers, antioxidants, and for antiflammable modifications. They are also used in veterinary or human medicine as drugs or chemicals for the study of nervous functions. They differ in their toxicity from practically non-toxi...