A-agents, misleadingly known as “Novichoks”: a narrative review

Abstract

Abstract“Novichok” refers to a new group of nerve agents called the A-series agents. Their existence came to light in 2018 after incidents in the UK and again in 2020 in Russia. They are unique organophosphorus-based compounds developed during the Cold War in a program called Foliant in the USSR. This review is based on original chemical entities from Mirzayanov's memoirs published in 2008. Due to classified research, a considerable debate arose about their structures, and hence, various structural moieties were speculated. For this reason, the scientific literature is highly incomplete and, in some cases, contradictory. This review critically assesses the information published to date on this class of compounds. The scope of this work is to summarize all the available and relevant information, including the physicochemical properties, chemical synthesis, mechanism of action, toxicity, pharmacokinetics, and medical countermeasures used to date. The environmental stability of A-series agents, the lack of environmentally safe decontamination, their high toxicity, and the scarcity of information on post-contamination treatment pose a challenge for managing possible incidents.

A-series agent A-234: initial in vitro and in vivo characterization

“…The latest A-series of the nerve agents was developed in the 1970s in the Soviet Union. The so-called Novichok agents were prepared as binary weapons and are claimed to be even more toxic than VX (Hrvat and Kovarik 2020 ) (for the detailed metaanalysis see Opravil et al 2023 ). In March 2018, after the attempted murder of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Salisbury, UK, the term Novichok came to public attention.…”