A Brief Primer on the Concept of the Neuroweapon for U.S. Military Medical Personnel.

The malevolent application of neuroscience is an emerging threat to the U.S. military. At present, U.S. military medical personnel are not capable of adequately diagnosing or treating the injuries and illnesses that may result from exposure to potential neuroweapons. This fact was illustrated in 2016 when U.S. diplomats serving in Havana, Cuba reported hearing strange noises accompanied by a constellation of unexplained health effects. Similar incidents have been reported in China and Russia. Although various hypotheses have been put forward to explain these symptoms, none of them have been verified. The reported symptoms were analogous to the physiological responses that have been produced in the laboratory by exposing volunteers to pulsed microwave energy. However, these incidents of undetermined origin demonstrate that widespread neurological illness can be disruptive to U.S. government operations and that it is currently not possible to identify the cause, determine the correct treatment, or ascribe attribution to potential neuroweapon use in an overseas setting. Since it is likely that Special Operations medical personnel will be among the first to respond to neuroweapon attacks in the deployed environment, it is essential that they be made aware of this emerging threat and that efforts be made to incorporate potential directed energy neuroweapons and other neuroweapon configurations into future Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and high yield Explosives (CBRN-E) training modules. The intention of this article is to introduce the concept of the neuroweapon to military medical personnel and to provide a brief review of the relevant literature.

Stability of SARS-CoV-2 on the Army Combat Uniform and Recommendations for Cleaning.

SARS-CoV-2 is the virus responsible for the disease that is known as COVID-19. While there have been numerous studies detailing the survival rates of SARS-CoV-2 on various materials, there are currently no published data regarding whether this virus is stable on standard military uniforms. Consequently, there are no standard operating procedures for washing uniforms once exposed to the virus. This study aimed to determine whether SARS-CoV-2 could be removed from Army combat uniform material by washing with a commercially available detergent and tap water. Washing the fabric with detergent followed by a rinse step with tap water effectively removes detectable viral particles. Importantly, it was found that washing with hot water alone was not effective. Therefore, it is recommended that military personnel wash their uniforms with detergent and water as soon as possible after exposure to SARS-CoV-2; hot water should not be used as a substitute for detergent.

Structure of DnmZ, a nitrososynthase in the Streptomyces peucetius anthracycline biosynthetic pathway.

The anthracyclines are a class of highly effective natural product chemotherapeutics and are used to treat a range of cancers, including leukemia. The toxicity of the anthracyclines has stimulated efforts to further diversify the scaffold of the natural product, which has led to renewed interest in the biosynthetic pathway responsible for the formation and modification of this family of molecules. DnmZ is an N-hydroxylating flavin monooxygenase (a nitrososynthase) that catalyzes the oxidation of the exocyclic amine of the sugar nucleotide dTDP-L-epi-vancosamine to its nitroso form. Its specific role in the anthracycline biosynthetic pathway involves the synthesis of the seven-carbon acetal moiety attached to C4 of L-daunosamine observed in the anthracycline baumycin. Here, X-ray crystallography was used to elucidate the three-dimensional structure of DnmZ. Two crystal structures of DnmZ were yielded: that of the enzyme alone, solved to 3.00 Šresolution, and that of the enzyme in complex with thymidine diphosphate, the nucleotide carrier portion of the substrate, solved to 2.74 Šresolution. These models add insights into the structural features involved in substrate specificity and conformational changes involved in thymidine diphosphate binding by the nitrososynthases.