Citation

Williams NH, Harrison JM, Read RW, Black RM. Arch. Toxicol. 2007; 81(9): 627-639.

Affiliation

Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Porton Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP4 0JQ, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00204-007-0191-8

PMID

17345062

Abstract

The organophosphorus nerve agents sarin, soman, cyclosarin and tabun phosphylate a tyrosine residue on albumin in human blood. These adducts may offer relatively long-lived biological markers of nerve agent exposure that do not 'age' rapidly, and which are not degraded by therapy with oximes. Sensitive methods for the detection of these adducts have been developed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Adducts of all four nerve agents were detected in the blood of exposed guinea pigs being used in studies to improve medical countermeasures. The tyrosine adducts with soman and tabun were detected in guinea pigs receiving therapy 7 days following subcutaneous administration of five times the LD(50) dose of the respective nerve agent. VX also forms a tyrosine adduct in human blood in vitro but only at high concentrations.

Language: en