Chemical warfare agents are a threat to both the civilian population and military personnel and there is an urgent need for rapid development of medical countermeasures. In particular, there is a need for neuroprotective therapies to counteract the central nervous system effects of chemical warfare agents. Recent efforts by the NIH CounterAct program to develop medical countermeasures have identified AEOL10150 as a lead compound that rescues lung injury caused by mustard and chlorine. The goal of this project is to determine if AEOL10150 is a neuroprotective medical countermeasure against surrogate and primary nerve agents. Based on our preliminary results and prior work, catalytic removal of reactive species by AEOL10150 is predicted to blunt oxidative stress and thereby prevent downstream changes such as metabolic dysfunction, gliosis and neuronal loss. Specific goals of the project are to determine the pharmacokinetic profile of AEOL10150 in rats (Specific Aim 1) and evaluate the neuroprotective efficacy of AEOL10150 against pilocarpine-induced neurotoxicity in rats (Specific Aim 2) using a variety of biochemical, pharmacological and analytical tools and techniques. These studies can help identify AEOL10150 as a versatile medical countermeasure against chemical warfare agents.

R21NS072099

2011-09-30

2015-08-31