Colorado researcher to test natural mustard gas cure

Perhaps it is a dubious honor, but since at least the First World War, mustard gas (also called yperite, after the French city of Ypres where the Germans deployed it) has been among the most popular of what are now classified as weapons of mass destruction. Few countries now think chemical weapons are of much use in modern combat, but few also doubt that terrorists might find such tactics appealing. In fact, brutal regimes such as that of Saddam Hussein did find mustard gas sufficiently appealing to use it against several Kurdish villages and the Kurdish city of Hallabja in 1988. Although there are some efforts afoot to control the sale of substances that make up chemical weapons, much attention is being paid to treating exposure, and it is here that University of Colorado professor Rajesh Agarwal comes into the story. The researcher has received a $2.7 million, five-year grant from the federal government to determine whether silibinin, a common dietary supplement derived from the milk thistle plant, can prevent or treat blisters caused by exposure to mustard gas.

“Our long-term strategy is to develop some type of ointment that can be applied to the skin immediately after exposure,” said Agarwal. Earlier research by Agarwal showed that milk-thistle extracts — used by some to treat and prevent liver toxicity — help prevent skin cancer in mice exposed to unltraviolet radiation, and as skin cells react similarly to both unltraviolet and mustard gas, Agarwal hypothesizes that they might share a treatment as well. In the experiments to come, Agarwal will use a substance called half mustard rather than mustard gas, though no doubt the experience will not be much more pleasent for the mice as a result.

-read more in Jim Erickson’s Rocky Mountain News report