Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health
Abstract
Bioregulators or modulators are biochemical compounds such as peptides, that occur naturally in organisms. Advances in biotechnology create the potential for the misuse of peptide bioregulators in offensive biological weapons programmes. Bioregulators are a new class of weapons that can damage the nervous system, alter mood, trigger psychological changes and kill. Over the last twenty years, neuroscience has produced an explosion of knowledge about receptor systems in the nerve cells that are of critical importance in receiving chemical transmitter substances released by other nerve cells. Bioregulators are closely related to substances normally found in the body that regulates normal biological processes. The potential military or terrorist use of bioregulators is similar to that of toxins. Together with increased research into toxins, the bioregulators have also been studied and synthesized. This paper presents a review of bioregulators that could be used in terrorist or other hostile activities.Bioregulatori ili modulatori su biokemijski spojevi kao što su peptidi koji se prirodno pojavljuju u raznim organizmima. Razvoj biotehnologije omoguæava zloporabu peptidnih bioregulatora u ofenzivnim biološkim ratnim programima. Bioregulatori su nova vrsta oružja koja mogu oštetiti živčani sustav, mijenjati raspoloženje i ponašanje, uzrokovati ozbiljne psihološke promjene i na kraju ubiti. Posljednjih dvadeset i više godina s razvojem znanosti o neurologiji nastupa prava eksplozija znanja o sustavima receptora živčanih stanica koja su od velike važnosti u otkrivanju kemijskih transmiterskih tvari što oslobađaju druge živčane stanice. Bioregulatori su tvari slične onima koje se prirodno nalaze u organizmu a koje reguliraju biološke procese. Moguænost uporabe bioregulatora u ratne ili terorističke svrhe slična je kao kod toksina. Zajedno s porastom istraživanja toksina istraživani su i sintetizirani bioregulatori. Ovaj rad prikazuje evaluaciju bioregulatora koji bi se mogli upotrijebiti u nekom od terorističkih napada ili kao biološki ratni agens u nemiroljubivim aktivnostima
