Improving Blood Monitoring of Enzymes as Biomarkers of Risk From Anticholinergic Pesticides and Chemical Warfare Agents

Abstract

Blood biomarkers are an important way to monitor exposure to anticholinergic pesticides and chemical warfare (CW) agents and to establish whether some are at greater risk than others from exposure to them. Many clinical and research laboratories use the colorimetric Ellman assay based on the hydrolysis of acetylthiocholine. CHPPM (US Army Center For Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine) uses a slower delta pH method based on that of Michel to monitor more than 25,000 DOD personnel each year. This year blood drawn under the appropriate regulations by CHPPM was centrifuged and hydrolyzed before being assayed by the delta pH method with acetylcholine as substrate. Paired samples were sent to UC Davis to be assayed with acetylthiocholine by the Ellman method. UC Davis samples were diluted with buffer and run with and without quinidine to separate activities due to acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and non-specific cholinesterase (BuChE). Slopes of pH vs Ellman results for three of five sets of samples had similar slopes and yielded correlations of r(2) of 0.74 to 0.8. Work continues on comparisons to establish critical assay conditions and Ellman equivalents of the delta pH assay.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADA416001

Entities

People

  • Barry E. Wilson

Organizations

  • University of California

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Acetylcholinesterases
  • Biological Markers
  • Blood
  • Blood Cells
  • Cells
  • Chemical Synthesis
  • Chemical Warfare
  • Chemical Warfare Agents
  • Chemistry
  • Data Sets
  • Laboratory Animals
  • Medical Personnel
  • Monitoring
  • Pesticides
  • Preventive Medicine
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Analytical Chemistry
  • Neurotoxicology
  • Oncology and Biomarker-Based Cancer Detection.