Decontamination and Detoxification with Sponges

One of the serious problems that may be encountered while caring for personnel contaminated with organophosphate (OP) chemical warfare nerve agents is the possibility that there will be crosscontamination to the medical personnel. Secondly, during combat or terrorist acts, individuals might be exposed to chemical toxins before they don their protective gear. Therefore, we have attempted to develop an enzyme immobilized polyurethane foam which can effectively decontaminate the skin and other such exposed surfaces of the organophosphate toxins. Antidotal therapy using cholinesterases (ChE) to scavenge the toxicity caused by OP chemical toxins is an effective parenteral pretreatment in animals against a variety of OP compounds. To continuously detoxify OPs, the ChE is combined with an oxime so that the catalytic activity of OP-inhibited ChE is continuously restored. In addition to this in vivo antidotal therapy, the in vitro reactivation of OP-inhibited ChEs by oximes also has important applications for the decontamination of skin. We have demonstrated the rapid in-situ copolymerization of ChEs at room temperature, and that ChE-sponges exhibit high activity and stability. In addition to the decontamination of skin and personnel, the enzyme-sponges can be utilized for preventing cross-contamination of medical and clinical personnel. The source of OP contaminants in the environment could be enclosed and detoxified if the ChE-sponge were incorporated into firefighting foams. Indeed, the sponge should be suitable for a variety of detoxification and decontamination schemes for both chemical weapons and civilians exposed to pesticides or highly toxic OPs such as sarin, or for first responders who could be exposed to OPs resulting from a terrorist act.