The evaluation of prophylactic efficacy of newly developed reversible inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase in soman-poisoned mice - a comparison with commonly used pyridostigmine.

The ability of four newly developed reversible inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase (PC-37, PC-48, JaKo 39, JaKo 40) and currently available carbamate pyridostigmine to increase the resistance of mice against soman and the efficacy of antidotal treatment of soman-poisoned mice was evaluated and compared. No reversible inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase studied was able to decrease the LD50 value of soman in mice. Thus, the pharmacological pre-treatment with pyridostigmine or newly synthesized inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase was not able to significantly protect mice against soman-induced lethal acute toxicity. In addition, neither pyridostigmine nor new reversible inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase was able to increase the efficacy of antidotal treatment (the oxime HI-6 in combination with atropine) of soman-poisoned mice. These findings demonstrate that pharmacological pre-treatment of soman-poisoned mice with tested reversible inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase is not promising.