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The methods of testing drugs in the United States Army Antimalarial Drug Development Program are described. To date over two hundred thousand compounds have been screened. For each 3,000 compounds evaluated in the primary screen, only 1 is assessed for efficacy in the final test system. Of those potential antimalarials assessed in this last system, only about half are deemed worthy of preclinical toxicological evaluation.

In the mouse, radioprotection is not always associated with the effect of hypertensive amidines and related amines. The protection resulting from this group of agents follows the pharmacological reduction of intercellular oxygen tension. oxygen tension of radiosensitive tissues.

In the mouse, chemical interference with cellular proliferation alters the radiosensitivity of the bone marrow, and this results in protection from otherwise lethal x-irradiation. When intestinal damage is minimized by appropriate timing and dosage, many mitotic inhibitors increase radioresistance and enhance the protective effects of mercaptoethylamine.