Organophosphate poisoning can occur from exposure to agricultural pesticides or chemical weapons. This exposure inhibits acetylcholinesterase resulting in increased acetylcholine levels within the synaptic cleft causing loss of muscle control, seizures, and death. Mitigating the effects of organophosphates in our bodies is critical and yet an unsolved challenge. Here, we present a computational...

To develop new avenues for synthesizing novel antidotes for organophosphate poisoning and for detection of the organophosphates, we have turned to recombinant DNA methods to synthesize cholinesterases with unusual properties. For antidotal therapy we describe mutations of the native mouse and human enzymes that allow for enhanced rates of oxime reactivation. Such enzymes, when localized in the ...

UNLABELLED Organophosphate toxic agents are used in agriculture and are currently part of the group of toxic agents which can lead to hearing loss, in which we have solvents, metals and asphyxiation agents. AIM To analyze the acute ototoxic action of a group of organophosphate agents in the vestibulo-cochlear system. This is a prospective experimental study. MATERIALS AND METHODS We used ma...

Current Opinion in Pediatrics 2008, 20:191–197 Purpose of review This review summarizes the recent research on pesticide exposure and child neurobehavioral development with a focus on in-utero exposure to organochlorine and organophosphate pesticides. Recent findings Recent studies on in-utero exposure to the organochlorine pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and its breakdown product, di...

This study characterized the within- and between-child variability in dimethylthiophosphate (DMTP) levels in the urine of 44 children living in an agricultural community in central Washington State in December 1997 and 1999. The goal of this analysis was to investigate these variability components during periods when organophosphate pesticides were and were not actively applied to orchards in t...

Intoxications due to organophosphate insecticides are common in our country, since agriculture has an important place. Besides the well known acute cholinergic toxicity, these compounds may cause late-onset distal polyneuropathy occurring two to three weeks after the acute exposure. An eight-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl admitted to the hospital with gait disturbances. Beginning 15 and 20...