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List of Chemical Substances
Published in T.S.S. Dikshith, and Safety, 2016
Exposures to nitrogen mustards cause adverse health effects and poisoning to humans. The symptoms of poisoning caused after accidental exposures to nitrogen mustard vapor by breathing include, but are not limited to, nasal and sinus pain or discomfort, pharyngitis, laryngitis, cough, abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and shortness of breath. Cells lining the nasal airways suffer immediate damage. Exposure to high levels of nitrogen mustards leads to fatal injury. On skin contact, nitrogen mustard vapors or liquid cause swelling and rash, followed by blistering, and in high concentrations, the chemical substance causes second- and third-degree skin burns. Contact of the vapor of nitrogen mustard to the eyes causes inflammation, pain, swelling, corneal damage, burns, and loss of vision. Accidental ingestion of nitrogen mustards causes burning of the mouth, esophagus, and stomach, and may further lead to damage to the immune system and bone marrow. On exposures to very high concentrations of nitrogen mustard vapor, occupational workers suffer tremors, incoordination, and seizures. Prolonged or repeated period of exposures to nitrogen mustard has caused cancer in animals and leukemia in humans.
Mechanisms of Different Anticancer Drugs
Published in Anjana Pandey, Saumya Srivastava, Recent Advances in Cancer Diagnostics and Therapy, 2022
Anjana Pandey, Saumya Srivastava
The history of organized clinical chemotherapy era started from World War I, though, it includes the warfare agents together known as mustard gases. In a study done by Edward B. Krumbhaar and group, the effects of mustard gas were seen on fighters who were killed due to exposure of this agent (Jarrell et al., 2020). The results, obtained from 75 post-mortems, it was revealed that an extreme decrease of leucocyte cells had occurred along with other phenomena. Simultaneous research was conducted at the U.S. Chemical Warfare Service on mustard gases. In this study, rabbits were injected with a lethal limit of doses and a prominent drop in leucocyte numbers was observed immediately along with bone marrow damage (Jones, 2014). Cancer cells characteristically multiply faster than the healthy cells, with a few exceptions; therefore, cytotoxins that control cell division have more effect on cancers than normal cells. The realization that leucopenia was due to the mustard gases imposing damage to fast-dividing cells and its cancer controlling ability was then legally followed after World War II (an era of first clinical chemotherapy trials) (Einhorn, 1985; Ghanei and Vosoghi, 2002). Originally, b-chloroethyl sulfides and its analogs, b-chloroethyl amines, were considered which later switched to dozens of mustard gas analogs. This eventually directed the final assimilation of “nitrogen mustards” in standard chemotherapy regimens. Mechlorethamine, the simplest and foremost candidate of this class, is still used for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and its structural relatives are used for other cancer treatment such as cyclophosphamide for leukemia, breast, lung cancer, and ovarian cancer, chlorambucil for chronic lymphocytic leukemia treatment, and melphalan for multiple myeloma and ovarian cancer management (Baguley and Kerr, 2001).
Cytotoxicity and pharmacokinetics study of nanostructured lipid carriers of mechlorethamine: Preparation, optimization and characterization
Published in Particulate Science and Technology, 2020
Bina Gidwani, Amber Vyas, Chanchal Deep Kaur
Mechlorethamine is bi-functional antineoplastic nitrogen mustard chemotherapeutic agent used in the treatment of cancer. It is highly toxic in nature. Extensive research work is reported to minimize the toxicity of mechlorethamine (Velmurugan and Selvamuthukumar 2016). However, there is no information available in literature exploring the use of nanotechnology for improving the physical and chemical properties of mechlorethamine. In present work, attempts have been made to nano-size the drug mechlorethamine and improve its aqueous solubility and oral bioavailability. Fast last several years nanotechnology is gaining significant advantage in pharmaceutical field for successful delivery of chemotherapeutics drugs. Moreover, drugs of BCS class II and class IV which suffer from solubility and permeability issues are also successfully re-modified and designed into nano-based delivery system to achieve sustained/controlled/prolonged and targeted delivery (Soni, Rizwanullah, and Kohli 2017)