CounterACT Center of Excellence / School of Veterinary Medicine

Center Research Projects Work to Find New Therapies

The Center is testing the hypothesis that adjunct therapies to standard of care that reduce inflammation of the brain (Project 1), protect blood-brain barrier (BBB) function (Project 2), and/or normalize neuronal excitability (Project 3) will significantly improve long-term neurological outcomes in survivors of acute organophosphate (OP) intoxication. OP nerve agents have been used in chemical warfare, terrorist attacks, and assassinations and include soman, sarin, tabun and VX. Survivors can experience long-term progressive brain injury, spontaneous recurrent seizures, and cognitive impairment. The 3 projects are designed so they use the same model of OP intoxication (a nerve agent surrogate, DFP), data collection time points, and criteria to advance identified therapeutic candidates.