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Goat Milk Could Carry Nerve Agent Countermeasure By Chris Schneidmiller The human body produces minimal amounts of the enzyme that can block the effects of organophosphates carried by nerve agents. The quantity is so low that it cannot aid the host body much less be collected for stockpiling as a chemical weapons countermeasure. It would take 500 liters of donated human blood to produce a single dose of the enzyme-derived treatment, according to The firm hopes to see the treatment stockpiled by Previous research has shown that goat milk could carry significant levels of proteins. In a project initiated in February 2001, researchers from PharmAthene and the U.S. Army turned that work toward production of a new nerve agent countermeasure. They placed the gene for the human form of the enzyme into goat embryos. Those resulting female goats were able to produce between one and five grams of the enzyme in each liter of milk, according to an article published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Laboratory animals injected with the enzyme collected from the milk survived exposure to five times the lethal dose of several nerve agents, including soman, sarin and VX. All three chemical agents are known as organophosphorous or anti-cholinesterase substances. They disable the correct functioning of the nervous system, potentially causing loss of muscle control, failure of the respiratory system, paralysis, convulsions, brain damage and death. The countering enzyme — huBChE — can bind to the organophosphates in the nerve agent and prevent them from damaging the human body. The goat-produced material has several potential benefits beyond its supply levels, PharmAthene said. Guinea pigs that received the treatment did not suffer neurological damage following exposure to a nerve agent. Current treatments do not offer that protection, said Solomon Langermann, PharmAthene vice president and chief scientific officer. “Soldiers maybe survive, but they don’t function very well,” he said. One dose of the enzyme, administered through intramuscular injection, might provide protection against nerve agents for seven days. It also has shown to safeguard animals even if given 30 minutes after exposure. “That’s better than the conventional treatment right now,” Langermann said. “The conventional treatment right now, which is 2-PAM and atropine, is very short-acting. It only works if it’s given exactly at the time of exposure.” PharmAthene in September 2006 received a $213 million U.S. Defense Department contract through 2013 to develop and produce 90,000 doses of the treatment. The company anticipates a larger order from the Pentagon, and also believes the Health and Human Services and Homeland Security departments might seek stockpiles of the drug for defending civilians against terrorist attack. Preparations for commercial-scale production are nearly complete, Langermann said. The company is continuing to research the enzyme, including conducting a toxicology study to ensure it is safe for humans. The Food and Drug Administration must also sign off on the treatment. Health and Human Services has not identified acquisition of additional nerve agent countermeasures as an immediate priority for the Strategic National Stockpile, said agency spokesman Marc Wolfson. The focus through fiscal 2008 is on anthrax, smallpox and acute radiation syndrome, with chemical weapons to be addressed afterward. Doses of atropine and other nerve agent treatments are now spread around the country, available for rapid use in the event of an act of chemical terrorism, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman said today.
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