Sarin resolution

There have been descriptions of the acute toxic effects in humans that follow high-dose exposure (>LD5o) to the nerve agents soman (Lekov et al., 1966 Sidell, 1974), sarin (Sidell, 1974 Inoue, 1995 Nakajima et al., 1998), and VX (Nozaki et al., 1995). The same cluster of behavioral symptoms that are reported following lower doses (anxiety, psychomotor depression, intellectual impairment, and sleep disturbances) dominate the clinical picture in the immediate period following resolution of the acute toxic signs of intoxication and then slowly fade with time, sometimes taking months to fiiUy resolve. 

The first evidence for enantioselectivity in the reaction of organophosphorus compounds with AChE was reported by Michel who noted a biphasic inhibition on incubation of AChE with racemic sarin. Shortly afterwards, Aaron et reported enantioselective AChE inhibitory activity for the resolved isomers of O-ethyl S-(2-ethylthioethyl) ethylphosphonothionate. Subsequent isolation, or partial resolution, of the enantiomers of sarin, soman, tabun and VX has shown that there is a very large enantioselectivity for cholinesterase inhibition k, ratios 10 -l 0 ) between the P(-) and P(+) isomers of sarin and soman, shown in Table 12. 

Porton Down in the UK was a biochemical research facility. In the mid-1950s, part of its research activities were concerned with the effects of nerve gases. One young serviceman was asked to participate in an experiment to find a cure for the common cold. It is claimed that he was actually exposed to a nerve toxin, sarin, and subsequently died. As recently as 2002 the British High Court gave the go-ahead for a new inquest into the death. Ethical issues in medical research have a habit of not going away until there is complete resolution. 

Another interesting development is comprehensive GC-MS. Comprehensive GC offers great selectivity and resolution and is ideal for complex samples such as biomedical samples. Its combination with time-of-flight mass spectrometry offers the possibility to analyze in full-scan mode, not target-directed, with the availability of a full mass spectrum that will meet the forensic standards. The utility has been demonstrated for the detection of CWAs in complicated matrices such as fuel (Reichenbach et al., 2003). The method has also been used for the analysis of regenerated sarin in inhibited plasma (van der Meer et al., 2010). Finally, it may be expected that the sample preparation will be more or less automated. Recently, a promising result was published by Carol-Visser et al. (2008), who described the digestion and analysis of sulfur mustard adducts in albumin and the sarin adduct to BuChE. 

UNSCOM verified that the principal CW agents produced by Iraq were sulfur mustard and the organophosphorus nerve agents cyclosarin, sarin, and tabun. The main CW issue that lacked resolution was the nature and extent of Iraq s program to produce VX. The Iraqi government claimed to UNSCOM that it had never filled weapons with VX but had merely produced limited, pilot plant-scale quantities of the nerve agent, totaling two to three tons of poor-quality material. UNSCOM disputed this claim. In late 1998, UNSCOM was forced to... 

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