Vesicants overview

This chapter provides readers with a comprehensive overview of the toxicokinetics of OP nerve agents and vesicants. 

Olajos EJ, Olson CT, Salem H, Singer AW, Hayes TL, Menton RG, Miller TL, Rosso T, Maclver B. Evaluation of neutralized chemical agent identification sets (CAIS) for skin injury with an overview of the vesicant potential of agent degradation products. J Appl Toxicol. 1998 Nov-Dec 18(6) 409-20)... 

Inflammation is likely one of the major driving forces of the skin pathology caused by SM exposure. The contribution of cytokines to the inflammatory events is well established and their signaling pathways are important targets of medical intervention for potential coxmtermea-sures of vesicant injury. The literature linking inflammation and wounding is so extensive as to fill a book by itself. This section therefore only presents an overview... 

Vesicants, including sulfur mustard and lewisite, are the subject of the second main part of this chapter. Coherences of invasion and distribution are presented, and the major processes of biotransformation and elimination caused by binding to proteins [and more prominently, to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)] are discussed. Finally, we make some comments about current bioanalytical approaches. This chapter provides readers with a comprehensive overview of tire toxicokinetics of OP nerve agents and vesicants. 

Such exposure events that lead to poison uptake and its distribution in an organism are part of the invasion process, whereas all steps causing a decrease in poison (e.g., elimination by degradation, biotransformation, and excretion) are part of the evasion process. For a better understanding of the pathophysiology and toxicokinetics of CWAs, an overview of the routes of poison incorporation is given in the next section, with a special emphasis on OP nerve agents and vesicants. 

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