Bigalke Hans, Rummel Andreas
Institute of Toxicology, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, D-30625 Hannover, Germany.
Toxicology. 2005 Oct 30;214(3):210-20. doi: 10.1016/j.tox.2005.06.015. Epub 2005 Aug 8.
For centuries, poisons and other biological material have been considered as weapons. However, it has been merely 100 years that the use of biological toxins as weapons has been explored scientifically. Trichothecenes, ricin and botulinum neurotoxins are natural organic toxins with diverse potencies. Their molecular structure, mechanisms of action, detection, clinical diagnosis and therapy are reviewed and their potential as biological weapon is discussed. It is not only the median lethal dose of each toxin that decides on its usability as a biological weapon, but also the availability, scale of production, purity of the isolated material and route of distribution. In general, without a state infrastructure, the use of biological weapons is restricted to assassinations or strictly localised terrorist attacks.
几个世纪以来，毒药和其他生物材料一直被视为武器。然而，将生物毒素用作武器的科学探索仅仅进行了100年。单端孢霉烯族毒素、蓖麻毒素和肉毒杆菌神经毒素是具有不同效力的天然有机毒素。本文综述了它们的分子结构、作用机制、检测方法、临床诊断和治疗，并讨论了它们作为生物武器的潜力。决定一种毒素能否用作生物武器的，不仅是每种毒素的半数致死剂量，还有其可得性、生产规模、分离材料的纯度以及传播途径。一般来说，在没有国家基础设施的情况下，生物武器的使用仅限于暗杀或严格局限于当地的恐怖袭击。
