Protection against soman and sarin exposure by transdermal physostigmine and scopolamine

Technical Report · Thu May 13 00:00:00 EDT 1993

OSTI ID:7113645

Meshulam, Y; Davidovici, R; Levy, A

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prophylactic efficacy of physostigmine (physo), administered via sustained release (SR) methods, with and without scopolamine, against soman and sarin exposure in guinea-pigs. Transdermal physo pad (3 sq cm/kg; 60-80 ug/sq cm), containing a vehicle based on propionic acid, was applied onto the dorsal back of the animals, 24 hours before exposure to the cholinesterase (ChE) inhibitors. At the time of exposure, physo concentrations in brain and plasma were 3.6 ng/g and 4.1 ng/ml respectively. Brain and whole blood ChE activity were inhibited to 70% and 57% of their original activity. Transdermal physo by itself protected up to 70% of the animals exposed to 1.5 LD(50) of soman or sarin (100% mortality was recorded in the control group). Combining transdermal physo with Scopoderm (by Ciba Geigy Inc.) provided full protection against 1.5 LD(50).

• Research Organization: Army Medical Research Inst. of Chemical Defense, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (United States)
• OSTI ID: 7113645
• Report Number(s): AD-P-008836/9/XAB
• Resource Relation: Other Information: This article is from 'Proceedings of the Medical Defense Bioscience Review (1993) Held in Baltimore, Maryland on 10-13 May 1993. Volume 2', AD-A275 668, p811-819
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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