U.S. Army funds TNO and to-BBB to investigate protecting soldier’s brains from nerve agents
TNO and to-BBB join their forces to investigate “Enrichment of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and brain with the nerve agent bioscavenger HuBuChE to improve its antidotal efficacy”. The research project is funded by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense (USAMRICD) with a $470k contract to the TNO.
USAMRICD funds the TNO for its expertise in medical countermeasures and unique capacity of producing radioactively labeled nerve agents in a secured facility in the Netherlands and its subcontractor to-BBB for its leadership in the safe delivery of different compounds of choice across the blood-brain barrier into the brain. The two organizations will evaluate if the brain-targeted formulation of the existing nerve agent bioscavenger “Human ButyrylCholinesterase (HuBuChE)” can prevent the lethal effects of a nerve gas attack.
To do so it is crucial that the nerve agent scavenger is enabled to cross the human blood-brain barrier and penetrate into all parts of the brain since the toxic mechanism of action of chemical nerve agents occurs within the central nervous system (CNS).
Director Gerben Klein Baltink of TNO Defence, Security and Safety states: “This important contract stipulates the excellence of TNO’s expertise and facilities in this research area. The valuable cooperation between to-BBB and TNO, both having complementary capabilities, is essential to perform this contract. It is an example of TNO’s strategy to carry out these projects with partnering Dutch companies.”
“If successful our strategy could provide better protection against nerve agent toxicity and will likely prolong the retention of the bioscavenger in the body” says dr Herman van Helden, projectleader of TNO. “We want to approach this research effort by merging the state-of-the-art technologies of to-BBB and TNO to support USAMRICD’s experts in bioscavengers.”
“It is rewarding to support TNO and USAMRICD with our brain drug delivery expertise in this exciting collaboration” says Pieter Gaillard, CSO of to-BBB. “This proof-of-concept study in a biosafety setting will also further strengthen our platform technology. Expanding the U.S. Army collaboration into the directions of after-attack treatments and clinical assessments could become our next steps in the biosafety area.”
Other news from the department science
