The creation of effective bioscavengers as a pretreatment for exposure to nerve agents is a challenging medical objective. We report a recombinant method using chemical polysialylation to generate bioscavengers stable in the bloodstream. Development of a CHO-based expression system using genes encoding human butyrylcholinesterase and a proline-rich peptide under elongation factor promoter control resulted in self-assembling, active enzyme multimers. Polysialylation gives bioscavengers with enhanced pharmacokinetics which protect mice against 4.2 LD 50 of S-(2-(diethylamino)ethyl) O-isobutyl methanephosphonothioate without perturbation of long-term behavior.organophosphate | N-acetylneuraminic acid | Russian VX | pesticide | mass spectrometry
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