Please read Dr. Aleksunes’ article in Pharmacology Research & Perspectives titled, “Repurposing FDA-approved drugs to treat chemical weapon toxicities: Interactive case studies for trainees.“
Disaster preparedness and response are necessary to ensure the health and safety of the public. This ranges from extreme weather events and natural disasters to pandemics and terrorist threats. In particular, the release of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons to citizens, first responders, and the military has great potential to paralyze the medical and societal infrastructure. Following the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center and Pentagon and the dissemination of anthrax on Capitol Hill in 2001, the United States signed into law the Project BioShield of 2004. Its purpose was to accelerate the research, development, purchase, and availability of effective medical countermeasures against biological, chemical, radiological, and nuclear agents. To coordinate these efforts, the Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority (BARDA) was created to procure and develop countermeasures with a goal of regulatory approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). One of the initiatives of BARDA alongside the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was the creation of the CounterACT program as a transdisciplinary initiative involving academic centers and pharmaceutical companies to develop new and improved medical countermeasures to prevent and treat pathologies caused by chemical threat agents. Chemicals of high concern included vesicating or blistering agents (e.g., mustard gas, lewisite), respiratory agents (e.g., chlorine, phosgene), nerve agents (e.g., sarin, soman), cyanides, and antimuscarinic agents. The goals of various CounterACT centers across the country have largely focused on (1) advancing pharmaceuticals to treat toxicities and diseases associated with exposure to chemical weapons, (2) adding medical countermeasure drugs to the strategic national stockpile, and (3) designing curricula that train students and scientists in medical countermeasures. To read the full article.
Repurposing FDA-approved drugs to treat chemical weapon toxicities: Interactive case studies for trainees. Aleksunes LM, Gray JP, Meshanni J, Laskin JD, Laskin DL. Pharmacol Res Perspect. 2024 Aug;12(4):e1229. PMID: 38965070 PMCID: PMC11223991 DOI: 1002/prp2.1229