[Increased efficacy of radiation protection against fission neutrons using unithiol]

It was found that the combination of unithiol (Sodium salt of 2,3-dimercapto-1-propansulfonic acid) with cystamine and AET diminished their toxicity. The optimum ratio for the antitoxic effect is 0.5 molar equivalent of unithiol per radioprotective 1.0 equivalent of thiol. Animals withstand big doses of protectors well, that gives an opportunity to use increased amounts of cystamine and AET. In the experiments with circular irradiation of male (CBA x C57B1)F1 mice weighing 18-22 g with fission neutrons (the neutron mean energy was 0.85 MeV, the contribution of gamma-quanta to the total was 25%, dose rate was 14 cGy/min) it was shown that the combination of unithiol with cystamine and AET enhances their radioprotective effect: the DRF of cystamine (150 mg/kg)--1.1, and the DRF of the combination of cystamine (300 mg/kg) with unithiol (152 mg/kg)--1.2; the DRF of AET (150 mg/kg)--1.2, the DRF of the combination of AET (300 mg/kg) with unithiol--1.4. Thus, the enhancement of dose of the radioprotectors, which was made possible as a result of their combination with unithiol, leads to enhancement of efficacy of chemical protection against fission neutron irradiation as much as 10-20%. Efficacy of AET is found to be comparable to efficacy of this protector in conditions of X-rays irradiation.