Soldiers will benefit from new product when taking nerve gas antidote

Tuesday, October 14, 2003

By Christopher Snowbeck, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The same technology that makes pagers vibrate is being put to use in a new inhaler that would provide a better way to give soldiers an antidote for nerve agent poisoning.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and MicroDose Technologies, Inc. of New Jersey are sharing a $1.52 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop the inhaler.

Currently, soldiers who are exposed to nerve agents such as tabun, sarin and VX give themselves an antidote called atropine by using an auto-injector syringe, a device that is much like the EpiPens that can stop allergic reactions if used immediately.

When those soldiers get back to a medical tent for further care, they are given inhalers that they use for hours or days to deliver atropine directly to the lungs. The current inhalers use chlorofluorocarbons to propel the antidote, but those chemicals are being phased out due to environmental concerns.

The new inhaler relies instead on technology that converts electrical energy to mechanical motion -- the same thing that happens when a pager vibrates. That motion makes an aerosol of the dry powder antidote, which can then be inhaled deep into the lungs, said Tim Corcoran, research assistant professor of medicine and bioengineering at Pitt.

Part of the challenge in developing the inhaler, Corcoran said, is figuring out how to make the antidote powder small enough so that it can get by the defense mechanisms of the lungs.

"It's very tricky to get medicine into the lungs," he said. "There are not many things you inhale that can actually make it in."

MicroDose, which has developed an inhaler to administer a dry powder form of insulin, sought out Pitt in March 2002 as a partner on the project because of the university's expertise in running clinical trials, said Eugenia Stoner, senior administrator for government relations at Pitt.

U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, recommended Pitt to the company, she said, and money for the project was subsequently included in an appropriation bill passed last winter. Work began this past spring.

Pitt will be responsible for testing the inhaler in human subjects, said Corcoran. Study participants won't be exposed to nerve agents, but will use the inhaler to take the antidote, nonetheless. Atropine causes pupils to become enlarged, but is harmless, he said.

Researchers will determine how well the device works by testing antidote levels in the blood of study participants. Inhaled medicines quickly pass from air spaces in the lungs into the bloodstream through a boundary that is only two cell layers thick.

Participants will also undergo nuclear medicine scans that will show the spread of a radioisotope-labeled form of the medicine in the lungs. This process was previously used at Pitt to test an aerosolized form of an anti-rejection drug in lung transplant patients, Corcoran said.

The funding will cover work for one year, including development of a prototype and initial testing in humans. Further funding needed to deliver a finished product is currently being negotiated, Corcoran said.

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