The potency of the bispyridinium non-oxime compound MB327 [1,1'-(propane-1,3-diyl)bis(4-tert-butylpyridinium) diiodide] to increase the therapeutic efficacy of the standard antidotal treatment (atropine in combination with an oxime) of acute poisoning with organophosphorus nerve agents was studied in vivo. The therapeutic efficacy of atropine alone - or atropine in combination with an oxime, MB327, or both an oxime and MB237 - was evaluated by the determination of LD50 values of several nerve agents (tabun, sarin and soman) in mice with and without treatment. The addition of MB327 increased the therapeutic efficacy of atropine alone, and atropine in combination with an oxime, against all three nerve agents, although differences in the LD50 values only reached statistical significance for sarin. In conclusion, the addition of the compound MB327 to the standard antidotal treatment of acute poisonings with nerve agents was beneficial regardless of the chemical structure of the nerve agent, although at the dose employed, MB327 in combination with atropine, or atropine and an oxime, provided only a modest increase in protection ratio. These results from mice, and previous ones from guinea-pigs, provide consistent evidence for additional, albeit modest, efficacy resulting from the inclusion of the antinicotinic compound MB327 in standard antidotal therapy. Given the typically steep probit slope for the dose-lethality relationship for nerve agents, such modest increases in protection ratio could provide significant survival benefit.

b Department of Molecular and Pathological Biology Faculty of Military Health Sciences University of Defence Hradec Kralove Czech Republic and

c Chemical Biological and Radiological Division Defence Science and Technology Laboratory Porton Down Salisbury UK

Department of Toxicology and Military Pharmacy Faculty of Military Health Sciences University of Defence Hradec Kralove Czech Republic

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