Pentagon hopes nicotine plant can 'cure' chemical weapons effects

28 September, 2012
Pentagon hopes nicotine plant can 'cure' chemical weapons effects
[link to rt.com]

Pentagon hopes nicotine plant can ‘cure’ chemical weapons effects
It’s a somewhat ironic decision by a country that vowed to spend $54 million on anti-tobacco advertising campaigns this year.
The Pentagon’s research branch, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), awarded $2.7 million to Kentucky Bioprocessing, LLC to research the rBuChe protein, which is found in the Nicotiana benthamiana plant, Wired magazine reported. Washington hopes the research will yield pre-treatments containing the protein that can be given to troops pre-deployment, in case they face a chemical weapon attack.

The rBuChE protein is also found within the human liver, where it is thought to be a ‘bioscavenger’ that waits in the bloodstream to attack harmful agents. According to the grant proposal, the aim of the project is to produce enough rBuChe to create “a drug that can protect the war fighter from chemical threat agent exposures.”

When a nerve agent enters the body, it stops certain enzymes from working, including the ones that break down the nerve-signaling molecule acetylcholine. When acetylcholine levels get too high, the entire nervous system shuts down.

The symptoms are ugly and painful – ranging from diarrhea, nausea, irregular heart rates, convulsions and even death. At present, there is no way to prevent these symptoms; medical professionals can only treat the damage after the fact.

But if scientists’ hypotheses are correct, the rBuChe protein will attack nerve gas and other nerve agents when they’re enter the body. Once the protein detects a harmful substance, it binds to it and breaks it down into sub-particles before it can attack the nervous system.
[link to usahitman.com]


Melatonin has been shown to help prevent lethal toxins from anthrax exposure. (1) It boosts glutathione levels during sleep.
[link to www.holistic-online.com]

The anthrax bacterium's toxicity emanates from its ability to kill macrophage cells which are part of the immune system. Studies have shown that sulfur-bearing antioxidants (alpha lipoic acid, N-acetylcysteine, taurine) and vitamin C, which elevate levels of glutathione, a natural antioxidant within the body, counters the toxicity produced by anthrax. [Molecular Medicine, November 1994; Immunopharmacology, January 2000; Applied Environmental Microbiology, May 1979]
Melatonin, a sleep-inducing hormone available at most health food stores, has been shown to help prevent lethal toxins from anthrax exposure. [Cell Biology Toxicology, Volume 16, 2000].
[link to www.tetrahedron.org]

To understand how nicotine works, remember that melatonin first inhibits DHEA, then participates in DHEA release when melatonin declines.
Nicotine mimics melatonin. The structure of nicotine is very similar to melatonin; so are caffeine, cocaine, methamphetamine and, seemingly contradictory, so are narcotics.
Nicotine is proven to stimulate DHEA ("The New England Journal of Medicine" 318: 1705). In the case of nicotine, I suggest people first use it like melatonin, to block the stimulatory effects of DHEA. They use it to relax.
I suggested it is the loss of melatonin that triggers the appetite for nicotine.
I did the experiment. I took a small amount of melatonin, along with my regular DHEA, during the day. Of course, it may be my expectation, but I perceived an increase in awareness and activity.
James Howard
[link to www.bio.net]