LETHALITY DUE TO URANIUM POISONING IS PREVENTED BY ETHANE-1-HYDROXY-1,1-BIPHOSPHONATE (EHBP)

The processes of uranium extraction, purification, and manufacture inv olve the risk of chemical intoxication. Acute uranium poisoning elicit s renal failure which in turn may lead to death. Great efforts have be en put into the search for a protective agent for acute uranium poison ing. Several chelating agents such as EDTA, Tiron, DTPA, or aminosalic ylic acid have been experimentally assayed. However, even when these a gents are able to reduce the mortality none of them achieve 100% survi val. We herein present the use of EHBP to prevent mortality due to ura nium poisoning. Rats weighing 14 g were employed in two different expe riments: A) The surviving animals were killed on the 60th day; and B) The animals were killed on the 9th day. In both experiments 4 groups w ere considered: 1. untreated control; 2. one intraperitoneal (IF) inje ction of uranyl nitrate (2 mg kg(-1) of body weight); 3. 1 IP injectio n of EHBP (10 mg kg(-1) of body weight); and 4. treatments 2 and 3 com bined. In both experiments 50% of the animals in group 2 died on the e ighth day. All the animals of the other groups were alive at the end o f the experiment. Histological analysis of the kidneys of the animals of experiment B revealed renal damage in the exposed animals, whereas no structural alterations were detected in the kidneys of the other th ree groups, including those given uranyl nitrate and treated with EHBP . These results show the efficiency of only one injection of EHBP to a void renal damage and to counteract the mortality due to uranium poiso ning with a success rate of 100%