HOUSTON, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- The U.S. government has commissioned a nine-month study of a carbon nanotube-based drug that might be able to prevent radiation injuries.
The U.S. Department of Defense commissioned the study at Rice University and the Texas Medical Center to determine whether the drug prevents death from radiation exposure. In preliminary testing, the drug was found to be more than 5,000 times more effective at reducing the effects of acute radiation injury than the most effective drugs currently available.
"More than half of those who suffer acute radiation injury die within 30 days, not from the initial radioactive particles themselves but from the devastation they cause in the immune system, the gastrointestinal tract and other parts of the body," said Professor James Tour, the study's principal investigator. "Ideally, we'd like to develop a drug that can be administered within 12 hours of exposure … (to) ionizing radiation."
He said researchers are also interested in determining whether the new drug can prevent the unwanted side effects that cancer patients suffer after undergoing radiation therapy.
