Pharmacological reviews
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Pharmacological reviews · Jun 1996
ReviewToxicology and pharmacology of the chemical warfare agent sulfur mustard.
There have been reports of chemical attacks in which sulfur mustard might have been used (a) on Iranian soldiers and civilians during the Gulf War in 1984 and 1985 and (b) in an Iraqi chemical attack on the Iranian-occupied village of Halbja in 1988, resulting in many civilian casualties. Heavy use of chemical warfare in Afghanistan by the Soviet military is a recent innovation in military tactics that has been highly successful and may ensure further use of chemical agents in future military conflicts and terrorist attacks as a profitable adjunct to conventional military arms. Mustard is a poisonous chemical agent that exerts a local action on the eyes, skin, and respiratory tissue, with subsequent systemic action on the nervous, cardiac, and digestive systems in humans and laboratory animals, causing lacrimation, malaise, anorexia, salivation, respiratory distress, vomiting, hyperexcitability, and cardiac distress. ⋯ Evidence for the teratogenicity of mustard has been negative in assessment of fetotoxicity and adverse effects of mustard on the reproductive potential of both human and animal studies. Indeed, investigations of women adversely affected by mustard are minimal because most of the studies have been performed on former men employees of poison gas factories and have been negative or questionable. We have recently emphasized the need to assess the affect of a suspected teratogen on maternal toxicity in laboratory animals before any conclusions can be made.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)
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The concept of multiple opioid receptors reconciles a large body of clinical and pharmacological data. Recent studies have shown that there are also multiple opioid binding sites. It would appear that there is considerable variability between species in both the specificity and selectivity of opioid receptors. ⋯ Already subspecies of mu, kappa, and sigma receptors are being postulated. Both pharmacological and neurochemical methods may reveal even more. Some of the newer kappa agonists differ in their pharmacology from the prototypic kappa agonist ethylketazocine.