Anthrax

Scientists seek answers on what activates deadly anthrax spores

Scientists at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and three other institutions are setting out to find what activates the spores in anthrax, the deadly bacterial infection that is back in the news. "A key aspect of anthrax spore biology concerns the germination process through which the dormant spore becomes a reproductive, disease-causing bacterium," explained Al Claiborne, Ph.D...

Study Models Impact Of Anthrax Vaccine

Rapidly distributing antibiotics to peopleexposed to anthrax spores during a bioterrorist attack, could byitself, prevent about 70 percent of anthrax infections from occurring,according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School ofPublic Health. To increase the prevention rate to 90 percent, theirstudy found that at least 63 percent of the population would need to beimmunized wi...

Antibodies from plants protect against anthrax

Scientists have produced, in tobacco plants, human antibodies that could be used to treat anthrax exposure. They report their findings today at the 2005 American Society for Microbiology Biodefense Research Meeting. "The nature of bioterrorism is such that an aggressor is likely to strike at a time and place calculated to induce maximum terror through mass casualties. The unpredictable nat...

Defensins neutralize anthrax toxin

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified a link between a critical cancer pathway and an Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) protein known to be expressed in a number of EBV-associated cancers. Their findings demonstrate a new mechanism by which EBV transforms human B cells from the immune system into cancerous cells, which can lead to development of B-cell lymphomas....

Critical step traced in anthrax infection

Scientists at Harvard Medical School (HMS) have revealed details of a key step in the entry of anthrax toxin into human cells. The work, which grew out of an ongoing effort to produce a better anthrax therapeutic, shows that the protective antigen component of the bacterial toxin plays an active role in transferring the other two components of the toxin through the cell membrane. The resea...

Anthrax test, developed by army and CDC, receives FDA approval

A method for identifying Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax, has been cleared for diagnostic use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The test, known as the Gamma Phage Assay, was modified by scientists at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) to improve its performance and reliability when used with clinical specimens. The original...

Anthrax inhibitors identified by Burnham team

A collaborative team of scientists led by The Burnham Institute's Maurizio Pellecchia, Ph.D., has identified inhibitors of the anthrax toxin, termed lethal factor ("LF") that could be developed into an emergency treatment for exposure to inhalation anthrax. These findings will be published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Early Edition at the journal's website the week of...

US Army plans to bulk-buy anthrax

The US military wants to buy large quantities of anthrax, in a controversial move that is likely to raise questions over its commitment to treaties designed to limit the spread of biological weapons. A series of contracts have been uncovered that relate to the US army' Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. They ask companies to tender for the production of bulk quantities of a non-virulent strai...

New antibody shows promise as cure for anthrax

A new anthrax antibody engineered by scientists at The University of Texas at Austin protects and defends against inhalation anthrax without the use of antibiotics and other more expensive antibodies. The high-affinity antibody, an anthrax antitoxin, successfully eliminated both anthrax bacteria and its deadly toxins in animal tests. If future tests concur, this could be the first successf...

Anthrax stops body from fighting back, study shows

University of Florida researchers have uncovered how the inhaled form of anthrax disarms bacteria-fighting white blood cells before they can fend off the disease, which kills most victims within days. The lethal toxin in anthrax paralyzes neutrophils, the white blood cells that act as the body's first defense against infection, by impairing how they build tiny filaments that allow them to...

Effective, safe anthrax vaccine can be grown in tobacco plants

Enough anthrax vaccine to inoculate everyone in the United States could be grown inexpensively and safely with only one acre of tobacco plants, a University of Central Florida molecular biologist has found. Mice immunized with a vaccine produced in UCF professor Henry Daniell's laboratory through the genetic engineering of tobacco plants survived lethal doses of anthrax administered later...

UCSD study finds anthrax toxins also harmful to fruit flies

Deadly and damaging toxins that allow anthrax to cause disease and death in mammals have similar toxic effects in fruit flies, according to a study conducted by biologists at the University of California, San Diego. Their findings, which appear this week in an early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that fruit flies can be used to study the...

Driver of anthrax toxicity could lead to late-stage therapy

A study in the March 24 Cell reports the discovery of a gene that drives anthrax bacteria's toxic effects. The gene could offer a potential new target for countermeasures against the lethal toxin, according to the researchers. Such therapies might have the potential to protect against anthrax during the late stages of the disease, after antibiotics have lost their therapeutic value, they a...

Scientists design potent anthrax toxin inhibitor

Scientists funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have engineered a powerful inhibitor of anthrax toxin that worked well in small-scale animal tests. "This novel approach to the design of anthrax antitoxin is an important advance, not only for the value it may have in anthrax treatment, but also because...

Anthrax spores may survive water treatment

Anthrax spores may survive traditional drinking water disinfection methods and can attach themselves to the inside surface of water pipes, suggesting water treatment facilities should be prepared to employ alternate disinfection methods in the unlikely event of the release of anthrax in the water supply. Researchers report their findings today at the 2006 ASM Biodefense Research Meeting. <p...

Anthrax inhibitor counteracts toxin, may lead to new therapeutics

Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Toronto have designed a nanoscale assembly of molecules that successfully counteracts and inhibits anthrax toxin in animal and laboratory experiments. The novel approach used to neutralize anthrax toxin could be applied in designing potent therapeutics for a variety of pathogens and toxins, according to the researchers. <...

Newly discovered protein kills anthrax bacteria by exploding their cell walls

Not all biological weapons are created equal. They are separated into categories A through C, category A biological agents being the scariest: They are easy to spread, kill effectively and call for special actions by the pubic health system. One of these worrisome organisms is anthrax, which has already received its fair share of media attention. But work in Vince Fischetti's laboratory at Rockef...

Combating anthrax: Results of study published this month as researchers look for a better vaccine

A new study published this month by a Saint Louis University vaccine researcher scrutinizes what in the future could be an alternative to the presently available anthrax vaccine. In its first human testing, the vaccine was given to...

Vaccine combined with short-term postexposure antibiotics protects monkeys from inhalational anthrax

Anthrax vaccine administered in combination with a short course of antibiotics completely protected nonhuman primates from inhalational anthrax, the most lethal form of the disease, according to scientists at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). In a collaborative study involving USAMRIID and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases...

New finding points way to foiling anthrax's tricks

University of California, Berkeley, chemists have discovered a trick that anthrax bacteria use to make an end run around the body's defenses, but which may turn out to be their Achilles' heel. The UC Berkeley scientists, working with colleagues at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, uncovered the trick while stu...

Anthrax attack posed greater potential threat than thought

A new study shows that more people were at risk of anthrax infection in the Oct. 2001 attack on U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle's office than previously known. The research is published in the January 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online. On the other hand, the study shows, prompt intervention with antibiotics and vaccination appeared to be highly effective against the disea...

Anthrax paralyzes immune cells with lethal toxin, UF research shows

University of Florida researchers have revealed how the inhaled form of anthrax paralyzes the body's defenses and prevents immune cells from reaching the site of infection. Anthrax killed five people in 2001 when letters containing the bacteria's spores were sent through the mail. The UF findings, published last week in the EMBO Journal, may lead to quicker diagnoses for anthrax victims. ...