ASSESSMENT OF EFFICACY OF ACTIVATED CHARCOAL FOR TREATMENT OF ACUTE T-2 TOXIN POISONING¹

Abstract

"Superactive" charcoal was assessed for efficacy in decreasing the lethality of both oral and parenteral exposure to T-2 toxin, a fungal metabolite which can cause death or illness upon ingestion. In vitro binding studies, analyzed using the Langmuir adsorption isotherm, showed that activated charcoal had a maximal binding capacity of 0.48 mg toxin/mg charcoal and a dissociation constant of 0.078 mg charcoal/l. In vivo, orally administered, activated charcoal was assessed for treatment of acute oral or parenteral exposure to T-2 toxin in mice. Following oral toxin administration (5 mg/kg), untreated mice showed only 6% survival after 72 hr. Charcoal treatment (7 g/kg,po) either immediately or 1 hr after toxin exposure resulted in significant improvement in survival with values of 100% and 75%, respectively. Following parenteral toxin exposure (2.8 mg/kg, sc), untreated and charcoal-treated (7 g/kg, po) mice showed 50% and 90% survival, respectively, after 72 hr. LD50 value for T-2 toxin, determined at 96 hr after intoxication, increased significantly from 2 mg/kg for untreated controls to 4.5 mg/kg for activated charcoal treatment.

Efficacy of Chlorine Dioxide as a Gas and in Solution in the Inactivation of Two Trichothecene Mycotoxins

“…Gamma-irradiation has also been employed for mycotoxin inactivation, although there have been mixed results using this technique (Wilson et al 2004; Aziz, Attia, and Farag 1997; Halasz et al 1989). One study showed that superactivated charcoal can neutralize T-2 toxin (Fricke and Jorge 1990). Chlorine was chosen as the active agent in this study because sodium hypochlorite has been shown to be able to inactivate trichothecene mycotoxins (Wannemacher and Wiener 1997).…”

Review of mycotoxin reduction in food and feed: from prevention in the field to detoxification by adsorption or transformation

“…For T-2 and HT-2 toxins, responses have been variable depending on the animals. For example, a 50% survival rate for mice fed with contaminated feed was observed while a 90% survival rate was reached after the addition of charcoal (Fricke and Jorge, 1990). On the other hand, there was no effect on chicken: a decrease in 20% of body weight was observed with or without treatment.…”

Decontamination

“…AC has been shown to decrease the absorption of a variety of substances [56]. Although little specific testing has been performed, there is evidence that AC is capable of adsorption to many of the agents and radioisotopes that are likely to contaminate the GI tract [58][59][60][61] (Table 2); however, poor binding has been described with ricin [62] and Cesium-137 [63]. AC has been shown to decrease absorption of several pharmaceutical agents by 89% if given within 30 minutes and 37% if given within 1 hour of ingestion [56].…”