NIH-DOD Collaboration for Chemical Threats Affecting the Nervous System

Office Of The Director, National Institutes Of Health

Investigators

Abstract

The projects under this IAA has been developed jointly by the NIAID/NIH CCRP and DoD/USAMRICD. Chemical Threats Affecting the Nervous System will be addressed under the scope of this IAA. This proposed Year 01 of 02 effort directly addresses the need to develop medical countermeasures against chemicals that have identified by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as threats to the nervous system and specifically includes organophosphate chemical warfare nerve agents. The research purpose of this interagency agreement is to develop in vitro, in vivo, and/or ex vivo models of the acute and/or chronic long-term toxic effect of exposure to the chemical threats for the purpose of medical countermeasure development. The rational development of the mature MCM product to be used as a therapeutic against chemicals affecting the nervous system requires an understanding of the mechanisms of toxicity. This IAA may utilize state-of-the-art toxicological, biochemical, physiological, genomic and electron microscopic evaluation approaches to elucidate the molecular mechanism to support the efficacy testing.