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HJF Receives Patent for Potential Treatment for Nerve Agent Exposure
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BETHESDA, Md., May 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. (HJF) received notice of allowance for a patent from the United States Patent Office (USPO) for a medical countermeasure to organophosphate (OP) nerve agent exposure. Among OP nerve agents is the deadly chemical weapon, Sarin. Led by Maria F. Braga, DDS, PhD, a professor of Anatomy, Physiology and Genetics, and Psychiatry in the in the School of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), researchers identified a neuroprotective combination therapy that is effective against OP exposure. The therapy was shown to be effective even with delayed use following nerve agent exposure. This innovation was patented by the USU/HJF Joint Office of Technology Transfer.
The experiments revealed that in open air, simulants decayed 10 to 1,000 times faster than in laboratory settings. These data indicate that laboratory tests underestimate the rate of agent decay that occurs outdoors, and on their own, laboratory tests are not sufficient in understanding the decay process outdoors.
To learn how biological threat agents decay upon interacting with variables in the open air, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Chemical and Biological Technologies Department (DTRA CB) developed a new, state-of-the-art test apparatus, the Captive Aerosol Growth and Evolution System (CAGES).
“Due to various challenges posed by outdoor testing, it was generally assumed by scientists that biological threat agents aged and decayed at similar rates indoors as they did outdoors. Our goal was to test this theory,” said Richard Mathieson, Science & Technology Manager, DTRA CB.