Sulfur mustard (SM) and similar bifunctional agents have been used as chemical weapons for almost 100 years. Victims of high-dose exposure, both combatants and civilians, may die within hours or weeks, but low-dose exposure causes both acute injury to the eyes, skin, respiratory tract and other parts of the body, and chronic sequelae in these organs are often debilitating and have a serious impact on quality of life. Ever since they were first used in warfare in 1917, SM and other mustard agents have been the subjects of intensive research, and their chemistry, pharmacokinetics and mechanisms of toxic action are now fairly well understood. In the present article we review this knowledge and relate the molecular-biological basis of SM toxicity, as far as it has been elucidated, to the pathological effects on exposure victims.

Ever since it was first used in armed conflict, mustard gas (sulfur mustard, MG) has been known to cause a wide range of acute and chronic injuries to exposure victims. The earliest descriptions of these injuries were published during and in the immediate aftermath of the First World War, and a further series of accounts followed the Second World War. More recently, MG has been deployed in warfare in the Middle East and this resulted in large numbers of victims, whose conditions have been studied in detail at hospitals in the region. In this review, we bring together the older and more recent clinical studies on MG toxicity and summarize what is now known about the acute and chronic effects of the agent on the eyes, skin, respiratory tract and other physiological systems. In the majority of patients, the most clinically serious long-term consequences of MG poisoning are on the respiratory system, but the effects on the skin and other systems also have a significant impact on quality of life. Aspects of the management of these patients are discussed.

SummaryDuring the 13 years since it was first advanced, the fractal network theory (FNT), an analytic theory of allometric scaling, has been subjected to a wide range of methodological, mathematical and empirical criticisms, not all of which have been answered satisfactorily. FNT presumes a two-variable power-law relationship between metabolic rate and body mass. This assumption has been widely accepted in the past, but a growing body of evidence during the past quarter century has raised questions about its general validity. There is now a need for alternative theories of metabolic scaling that are consistent with empirical observations over a broad range of biological applications. In this article, we briefly review the limitations of FNT, examine the evidence that the two-variable power-law assumption is invalid, and outline alternative perspectives. In particular, we discuss quantum metabolism (QM), an analytic theory based on molecular-cellular processes. QM predicts the large variations in scaling exponent that are found empirically and also predicts the temperature dependence of the proportionality constant, issues that have eluded models such as FNT that are based on macroscopic and network properties of organisms.Key words: fractal network theory, two-variable power law, allometric cascade model, metabolic limit boundaries hypothesis, quantum metabolism.

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The nucleoside triphosphate-stimulated efflux of RNA from isolated nuclei was studied under a range of conditions, and the effects of these conditions on the process were compared with the properties of the nucleoside triphosphatase located in the pore complex. A marked similarity between the rate of efflux and the rate of nucleoside triphosphate hydrolysis was apparent, in terms of substrate specificity, sensitivity to treatment with insolubilized trypsin, kinetics and the effects of increased ionic strength and of many inhibitors. These results are taken, in view of earlier evidence, to suggest that the activity of the nucleoside triphosphatase is a prerequisite for nucleo-cytoplasmic RNA transport in vivo. There are some indications that the nuclear-envelope lipid is also involved in regulating the efflux process.