Sulfur mustard and respiratory diseases: Revisit with special reference to the 'Comments on 'Sulfur Mustard and Respiratory Diseases', Tang and Loke (2012) and a prepared Integrated Mechanism for Chronic Pulmonary Disease from Exposure to Sulfur Mustard' by Saburi and Ghanei (2013)

摘要

We have read with some interest the comments by Saburi & Ghanei (2013) on our recent publication entitled "Sulfur mustard and respiratory diseases" (Tang & Loke, 2012) published in Critical Reviews in Toxicology. Here are our replies to their concerns.In Section 5.2. "HD-induced chronic damages", pp. 696-697, we have elaborated possible mechanisms involved in pathogenesis of mustard-induced chronic respiratory disease. Based on experimental data provided by various research groups, we have also mentioned at least six potential drug targets that could lead to a treatment solution for chronic phase respiratory effects (Tang & Loke, 2012). While highlighting these possible therapeutic approaches, it is important to note that most of the available clinical data (Ghanei et al., 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007; Panahi et al., 2005) were obtained from non-Randomized Clinical Trials (RCT), which has limited sample sizes, lacked case controls and double-blind randomized trial designs.