Biomaterials for Mediation of Chemical and Biological Warfare Agents

Abstract

Recent events have emphasized the threat from chemical and biological warfare agents. Within the efforts to counter this threat, the biocatalytic destruction and sensing of chemical and biological weapons has become an important area of focus. The specificity and high catalytic rates of biological catalysts make them appropriate for decommissioning nerve agent stockpiles, counteracting nerve agent attacks, and remediation of organophosphate spills. A number of materials have been prepared containing enzymes for the destruction of and protection against organophosphate nerve agents and biological warfare agents. This review discusses the major chemical and biological warfare agents, decontamination methods, and biomaterials that have potential for the preparation of decontamination wipes, gas filters, column packings, protective wear, and self-decontaminating paints and coatings.

Recent Advances in Decontamination of Chemical Warfare Agents

“…Polyurethane foams: Drevon 50 & Russell 51 described the incorporation of the nerve agent degrading enzyme DFPase into polyurethane foams. The activity of the DFPase in the bioplastic was shown to be limited by internal diffusion.…”

Organophosphorous Compounds-Toxicity and Detection Approach

“…This method is sensitive and reliable but can not carried out in field, it is expensive and time consuming too. In addition to this, variety of approaches have been investigated for sensors, including enzymatic assays (Russell et al, 2003), molecular imprinting coupled with luminescence (Jenkins et al, 1997;Rudzinski et al, 2002), colorimetric methods (Wallace et al, 2005), surface acoustic waves (Nieuwenhuizen & Harteveld, 1997), fluorescent organic molecules (Yamaguchi et al, 2005;Zhang & Swager, 2003), interferometry (Sohn et al, 2000) and enzyme biosensors based on inhibition of cholinesterase activity (Evtugyn et al, 1996;Trojanowicz, 2002).…”

Fabrication of Polymerized Crystalline Colloidal Array Thin Film Modified β-Cyclodextrin Polymer for Paraoxon-ethyl and Parathion-ethyl Detection

“…This limits the stability and reproducibility of the sensor due to the change of enzyme activity after exposure to OP compounds. 8 The incorporation of nanomaterials such as nanoparticles, 9,10 carbon nanotube, 11 and organic polymer, 12 and the advancement of technology recently have resulted in the development of devices offering greater sensitivity, portability, lower-cost and short time analysis. 13,14 Optical sensors have been developed as one of the promising methods for detection of OP compounds and CNAs which provide more convenient and simple means in optical signal detection.…”