Lethality due to uranium poisoning is prevented by ethane-1-hydroxy-1,1-biphosphonate (EHBP)

The processes of uranium extraction, purification, and manufacture involve the risk of chemical intoxication. Acute uranium poisoning elicits renal failure which in turn may lead to death. Great efforts have been put into the search for a protective agent for acute uranium poisoning. Several chelating agents such as EDTA, Tiron, DTPA, or aminosalicylic acid have been experimentally assayed. However, even when these agents are able to reduce the mortality none of them achieve 100% survival. We herein present the use of EHBP to prevent mortality due to uranium poisoning. Rats weighing 14 g were employed in two different experiments: A) The surviving animals were killed on the 60th day; and B) The animals were killed on the 9th day. In both experiments 4 groups were considered: 1. untreated control; 2. one intraperitoneal (IP) injection of uranyl nitrate (2 mg kg-1 of body weight); 3. 1 IP injection of EHBP (10 mg kg-1 of body weight); and 4. treatments 2 and 3 combined. In both experiments 50% of the animals in group 2 died on the eighth day. All the animals of the other groups were alive at the end of the experiment. Histological analysis of the kidneys of the animals of experiment B revealed renal damage in the exposed animals, whereas no structural alterations were detected in the kidneys of the other three groups, including those given uranyl nitrate and treated with EHBP. These results show the efficiency of only one injection of EHBP to avoid renal damage and to counteract the mortality due to uranium poisoning with a success rate of 100%.