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Biological Terrorist Agents
Published in Robert A. Burke, Counter-Terrorism for Emergency Responders, 2017
Complete recovery requires 1–2 weeks. Diagnosis of the disease is difficult, as physical symptoms are nonspecific. White blood cell counts may show a striking leukopenia (abnormally low leukocytes in the blood) and lymphopenia (reduction in number of lymphocytes circulating in the blood). The virus can be isolated from the serum (fluid that forms blood clots). Because there are no drugs or specific treatments for the disease, treatment is supportive. Analgesics may be given to relieve headache and myalgia. Victims that develop encephalitis can be treated with anticonvulsants and fluid therapy for electrolyte balance. Two vaccines are available, but are still in the investigation phase of development. TC-83, a live vaccine, is given in a single dose 0.5 mL subcutaneously. A second vaccine, C-84, is used to boost those who do not respond to the TC-83. It is given 0.5 mL subcutaneously in 3 doses at 2–4-week intervals. Research is also underway using antiviral drugs that have shown some promise with laboratory animals. However, no human clinical data are available. VEE virus remains active outside the host in pharyngeal secretions, dried blood, and exudates (fluids from wounds or pores of the skin). It can be inactivated with moist and dry heat. Disinfectant solutions include 1% sodium hypochlorite, 70% ethanol, 2% glutaraldehyde, and formaldehyde.
Docetaxel-loaded redox-sensitive nanoparticles self-assembling from poly(caprolactone) conjugates with disulfide-linked poly(ethylene glycol)
Published in Journal of Biomaterials Science, Polymer Edition, 2022
Yongli Shi, Chunyan Li, Mingbo Yang, Xiaofei Pan, Jie Hu
Clinically, surgical treatment is still one of the main treatment methods for the breast cancer. Besides, chemotherapy is common used as an adjunct to patients after surgery or radiation therapy to reduce the chance of recurrence [9]. However, the chemotherapeutics usually cause serious side effects, e.g. fatigue [10], depression, vomiting [11], hair loss [12], menopause [13], nausea [14], and so on. For example, docetaxel (DTX), as a derivative of paclitaxel, causes cell apoptosis by promoting the aggregation and de-polymerization of microtubules [15]. Therefore, DTX shows excellent anti-cancer activity, and it is commonly used in the treatment of breast cancer [16]. Like other anti-cancer drug, DTX also displays a dosage-depend toxicity. Its major side effect is myelosuppression [17], resulting in leukopenia. To overcome these dilemma, many smart nano-carriers are developed to targeted deliver drug into tumor cells [18,19]. It is reported that the cancer cells display low pH and redox microenvironments [20], which can be used as the stimulus to deliver chemotherapeutics intra-cellularly [21–23]. These system targeted accumulate chemotherapeutics in cancer cells, which improves the anti-cancer activity of model drugs and decrease their side effects.