Acute sc toxicity of
soman increased in the order, mice----rats----guinea pigs----dogs, being 12.6 times more toxic to dogs (LD50 = 0.05 mumol/kg) than to mice. It was 2.8 times more toxic than
tabun to mice and 35 times more toxic to dogs.
HI-6 was the least toxic and had similar toxicity values to the four animal species studied and
HGG-12 the most toxic of the three
oximes used.
HGG-12 has shown the greatest interspecies variation (rats:dogs = 1:19.5).
HI-6,
HGG-12, and
PAM-2 Cl (in conjunction with
atropine and
diazepam) revealed the best protective effect in
soman-poisoned dogs, with the respective protective indices of 9, 6.3, and 3.5, followed by guinea pigs. In
tabun poisoning the best, but relatively low, protective effect was found only in guinea pigs. The introduction of
diazepam increased the protective effects of
atropine-
oxime combination in
soman and
tabun poisoning by 10 to 80%. We suggest that the high toxicity of
soman and low toxicity of
HI-6 may be anticipated in man. The inefficiency of
HI-6,
HGG-12, and
PAM-2 Cl in
tabun poisoning points either to the search of new compounds or to the use of the mixture of the
oximes found to be effective against the known chemical warfare
nerve agents.