Enzymatic decontamination

Battistel, E., Bernard , A., and Maestri, P. 1997. Enzymatic decontamination of aqueous polymer emulsions containing acrylonitrile. Biotechnology Letters, 19 131. ... 

Currently, the preferred buffer for enzymatic decontamination systems under development by the U.S. Army is anunonium carbonate. The addition of solid ammonium carbonate to wat results in a pH of 8.5 to 9.0 with no adjustment needed, and the ammonium ions are known to stimulate the activity of OPAA (Cheng and Calomiris, 1996). Ammonium carbonate, however, does not have a high buffering capacity, thus making it impractical for use in large-scale decontamination. 

Richardt A, Blum MM (eds) (2008) Decontamination of warfare agents. Enzymatic methods for the removal of B/C weapons. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH Co. KgaA, Weinheim... 

The physico-chemical effect of high pressure, especially in the supercritical state, to enhance the solubility and phase conditions of the components involved. Supercritical hydrogenation, or enzymatic syntheses are offer new steps with high pressure. Supercritical water oxidation at high pressure represents an efficient method for the decontamination of wastes. 

Plant material has been successfully used to decontaminate water polluted with phenolic compounds through enzymatic reactions [24,104]. 

Stereoselective enzymatic degradation of nerve agents is also a current issue in developing both novel noncorrosive decontamination systems and new therapeutics making use of recombinant mutated enzymes optimized for fast and exhaustive hydrolysis of most toxic isomers (Blum and Richardt, 2008 Furlong, 2007 Ghanem and Raushel, 2005 Li et al, 2001 Tsugawa et al, 2000). 

Richardt, A., Blum, M.M. (2008). Decontamination of Warfare Agents Enzymatic Methods for the Removal of B/C Weapons, Wiley-VCH, Berlin. 

Amitai, G., Adani, R., Rabinovitz, I., and Meshulam, H. 2002, In vitro Skin Decontamination of VX by Enzymatic Peroxidation, U.S. Army Medical Research Command, Hunt Valley, MD. 

Biodegradation of mycotoxins has become an area of great interest. Biological detoxification involves the enzymatic degradation or transformation of toxins to less toxic componnds and is often a detoxification or resistance mechanism nsed by microbes or plants for protection from adverse impacts of toxins. It has been shown that S. cerevisiae and lactic acid bacteria are potential candidates for mycotoxin decontamination (Halady Shetty Jespersen, 2006). 

The enzymatic activity of OPH has been shown to be stable at temperatures up to 50 C, with rates of hydrolysis exceeding those of chemical hydrolysis by more than 40-fold (27, 22), making OPH useful in decontamination. OPH has also been employed for the detection of OPs based on techniques including optical, acoustic, potentiometric, and amperometric for monitoring pH change or production of p-nitrophenol, chlorferon, or F (Table I). 

Hellweg, T., Wellert, S., and Mitchell, S. 2008., Microemulsions as carriers for decontamination agents in Decontamination of Warfare Agents Enzymatic Methods for the Removal ofB/C Weapons, Blum, Chapter 12, pp. 223-242, M.-M. and Richardt, A. (eds.). Weinheim, Wiley VCH. 

---