A Hidden Gem: Highlighting the Indispensable Capabilities and History of the DoD Cholinesterase Monitoring Program and DoD Cholinesterase Reference Laboratory

The DoD Cholinesterase Monitoring Program and Cholinesterase Reference Laboratory have safeguarded U.S. government employees in chemical defense for over five decades. Considering Russia's potential deployment of chemical warfare nerve agents in Ukraine, it is critical to maintain a robust cholinesterase testing program and its efficiency presently and in future.

[To the 80-anniversary of cholinesterase. The cholinesterase club in Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry]

For the second half of the XX century, Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences was the center of the Russian cholinesterase investigations ("the Russian cholinesterase club"). The close cooperation with chemists-syntheticians of different scientific schools provided success and fruitfulness of this scientific search. All these years, there was preserved dualism of this investigation: a study of the mechanism of functioning and kinetics of cholinesterase catalysis as well as the comparative-enzymological character of studies of cholinesterases of the animals being at different levels of evolutionary development.