The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics is planning for a special section on Medical Countermeasures for publication in the February 2024 issue.
Original research pertaining to medical countermeasures (MCs) against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats, as well as opioid toxicity, will be considered for publication. MCs are promising therapeutic agents for mitigating the acute and/or chronic sequel after toxic exposure. Chemical threats are toxic compounds that could be used in a terrorist attack or accidentally released from production, storage, shipping or other disasters. They include neurological, respiratory, vesicating, ocular and pharmaceutical-based agents.
The special issue will broadly cover antidotes and translational research on MCs for CBRN threats. It will feature research elucidating short- and long-term mechanisms of toxic exposure-related illness, profiling clinical features, developing diagnostic tests and evaluating lead drugs to minimize symptoms and disease progression in the military and civilian populations.
Full-length manuscripts describing repurposed and innovative MC drug interventions, as well as evaluation of existing treatments, drug delivery systems and improved therapeutics for current and emerging CBRN threats are especially welcome. Journal editors highly encourage research papers describing innovative in vitro-in vivo toxicity models/mechanisms, sex and age differences and preclinical/clinical evaluation of lead compound(s) against chemical agents, opioid toxicity and infectious threat agents. Research article topics for consideration include epidemiology, model systems and preclinical and clinical drugs for Gulf War illness are considered. Reports on novel mechanisms, signaling pathways and therapeutic targets for understanding and reversing the effects of an overdose and the observed toxicities caused by acute potent opioid exposure and overdose toxicity are also considered. Please send a pre-submission inquiry including title, author information, abstract, and significance statement to The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics prior to full submission.
Original articles addressing any aspects of the aforementioned topics will be considered. A few authoritative status reports/ reviews on the progress of CBRN research and advanced MCs will be considered. The guest editor, Dr. Samba Reddy, will review these inquiries, respond to the authors with comments and assess whether final approval will be granted for a full submission. There is no page charge for publishing in this special issue; the accepted manuscript version is published immediately online. All submissions must refer to the journal Instructions to Authors and the submission deadline is May 31, 2023.