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Berkeley Scientists are on the front lines of preparation for a ‘dirty bomb’ attack or other radiological incident.

The federal government has awarded $1 million to a team from Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory studying potential treatments for exposure to radioactive substances, such as would come from a radiation-contaminated ‘dirty’ bomb.

‘I think we have the opportunity to develop something that works better than what’s been available for the last 20 to 30 years,’ said Berkeley Lab chemist Kenneth Raymond, the research leader.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases granted the money to Raymond in the hope of accelerating his research on molecules that can flush metals such as plutonium and uranium out of the body.

The treatments the federal government is currently stockpiling are not very thorough or efficient and must be injected.

‘If there is an incident, such as a dirty bomb attack, the numbers of people potentially requiring emergency treatment is likely to be large,’ said biologist Bert Maidment of infectious diseases institute. ‘And an injectable (treatment) is probably not mass-casualty friendly.’

Maidment hopes to find a treatment that is more effective than current drugs, can flush out a wider range of metals, can be easily mass-produced and can be given orally.

‘Hopefully they’ll never be used,’ he said. ‘You put up a countermeasure, and that might be a deterrent.’

Raymond’s group has been working for nearly three decades to develop synthetic molecules that will bind to the unwanted radioactive metals before they become incorporated into human tissues.

The body has a very hard time ridding itself of these radioactive metals on its own, and nearly 95 percent of what is ingested or inhaled manages to stick around.

This is because these radioactive metals are very similar to iron, which the body needs. Because iron is relatively rare, mammals are designed to horde it. Iron binds to large proteins that are too big to be filtered out through the kidneys.

Unfortunately some unwanted metals — such as plutonium, uranium and other radioactive elements — tend to bind to those same large proteins. So Raymond’s team is looking for things that will bind to the metals and can be filtered through the kidneys and excreted.

‘The trick here is to find a chemical which binds the metal ions better than the things they encounter in the blood or liver or bone,’ said team-member Patricia Durbin, a Berkeley Lab biophysicist.

After testing dozens of molecules for their ability to bind different radioactive metals in mice, the team has identified two with a lot of promise. Both bind a range of metals, and one is especially effective on uranium and the other works well for plutonium.

The team’s NIAID award is one of four grants for research on radiological treatments. The funding is for 18 months, and Raymond’s team hopes that by the end of this period they will have a good idea whether their molecules are better than current treatments. The team also wants, at that point, to have the treatments well on their way to being ready for human clinical trials.

Article source: http://www.topix.net/