Anthrax in Biological News

Early detection and quick response are key to defense against anthrax attack

NEW YORK (July 24, 2009) -- A large attack on a major metropolitan area with airborne anthrax could affect more than a million people, necessitating their treatment with powerful antibiotics. A new study finds that in order for a response to be effective, quick detection and treatment are essentia...

Novel handheld device detects anthrax with outstanding accuracy and reliability

Baltimore, MD, and Christchurch, NZ June 25, 2009 Veritide Ltd., a developer of innovative biological identification and detection solutions, today reported that new independent data to be presented at the Biodetection Technologies 2009 conference confirm the exceptional accuracy of its Ceeker (...

New technique used to profile anthrax genome

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have used a new approach, known as RNA-Seq, to profile the gene expression of the bacterium that causes anthrax, Bacillus anthracis. Their study, published March 20, 2009, online by the Journal of Bacteriology , marks the first time any bacterial...

FBI unveils science of anthrax investigation

They have worked for almost seven years in secret. Most people did not know that the work in Ray Goehner's materials characterization department at Sandia National Laboratories was contributing important information to the FBI's investigation of letters containing bacillus anthracis, the spores...

NIST, Army researchers pave the way for anthrax spore standards

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Army Dugway (Utah) Proving Ground have developed reliable methods based on DNA analysis to assess the concentration and viability of anthrax spores after prolonged storage. The techniques and data are essential...

New decontamination system kills anthrax rapidly without lingering effects

In October 2001, letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several news media offices and two U.S. senators, killing five people and infecting 17 others. Clearing the Senate office building of the spores with chlorine dioxide gas cost $27 million, according to the Government Accountability ...

Team IDs weakness in anthrax bacteria

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--MIT and New York University researchers have identified a weakness in the defenses of the anthrax bacterium that could be exploited to produce new antibiotics. The researchers found that nitric oxide (NO) is a critical part of Bacillus anthracis's defense against the immune re...

Using carbon nanotubes to seek and destroy anthrax toxin and other harmful proteins

Troy, N.Y. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new way to seek out specific proteins, including dangerous proteins such as anthrax toxin, and render them harmless using nothing but light. The technique lends itself to the creation of new antibacterial and antimicrobia...

Data published in the New England Journal of Medicine support use of raxibacumab (ABthrax) for the treatment of inhalation anthrax

ROCKVILLE, Maryland July 9, 2009 Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: HGSI) today announced publication by the New England Journal of Medicine of the results of two pivotal animal efficacy studies, which showed the life-saving potential of the Company's human monoclonal antibody drug raxibacum...

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 al...

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 ...

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 dur...

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 ...

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...

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 ro...

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 c...

Study Models Impact Of Anthrax Vaccine

Rapidly distributing antibiotics to people exposed to anthrax spores during a bioterrorist attack, could by itself, prevent about 70 percent of anthrax infections from occurring, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. To increase the prevention rate to 90...

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...

Bioterrorism and disaster preparedness explored in special issue of Medical Decision Making

...f Medical Decision Making , a large-scale, covert anthrax attack on a large city would overwhelm hospital re...cle "Predicting Hospital Surge after a Large-Scale anthrax Attack: A Model-Based Analysis of CDC's Cities Rea...initiating response to large-scale, covert aerosol anthrax releases in a major city, even with highly effecti...

American Society for Microbiology honors James W. Snyder

...orts in bioterrorism preparedness which began several years before the 2001 anthrax attacks. He authored the ASM Cumitech publication, "Laboratory Safety, Mana...nd are the standards for the other professional groups in the LRN. The 2001 anthrax attack was diagnosed by a clinical laboratory using the techniques outlined...

ASM biodefense and emerging diseases research meeting

...earch of Concern? " OF NOTE: A plenary session on the science behind the anthrax letter attack investigation will take place on the morning of Tuesday, Febr...act as a forum for scientists directly involved in the investigation of the anthrax letter attacks of 2001 to present their analyses and conclusions. Innovativ...

Scientists present 'moving' theory behind bacterial decision-making

...ecific bacterial protein responsible for producing anthrax toxins. One of the transition-state regulators ... of all three of these toxins is necessary to make anthrax lethal. Cavanagh and Bobay say that knowledge o...t would knock out its function. That would prevent anthrax from "going lethal." "We now know more about th...

Scripps research scientists identify blood component that turns bacteria virulent

...bserved that the best medium for toxin production was one that people believed mimicked conditions found in the blood of a human or animal host, where anthrax bacteria would find both carbon dioxide and bicarbonate. But we've never known which of these two molecules was the more important for bacterial patho...

New 'chemical radar' among national security innovations in ACS podcast

... National Institutes of Health calls Category A agents. Those materials include biological agents such as botulism toxin and infectious agents such as anthrax and smallpox. Global Challenges recalls the introduction of radar, which gave 20th century society its first method for early detection of incoming...

Nano vaccine for hepatitis B shows promise for third world

...tory bulb," he says. Baker's team has published earlier studies affirming the promise of nasal nanoemulsions as a strategy for smallpox, influenza, anthrax and HIV vaccines. The nanoemulsion technology is patented by U-M and licensed to Ann Arbor-based NanoBio Corporation. Baker is a founder and equity ho...

Francisella tularensis: Stopping a biological weapon

...tracted by inhalation, Francisella tularensis has been designated a potential biological weapon. Since the events of September 2001 and the subsequent anthrax attacks on the USA, concern about the potential misuse of dangerous pathogens including F. tularensis has increased. As a result, more funding has b...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- July 9, 2008

...EASE New "scrubber" speeds removal of powerful anthrax clean-up agent Organic Process Research & Develo...sed to sterilize buildings and equipment following anthrax attacks. Their chemical "scrubber" removes 99 perc...tion and could pave the way for its broader use in anthrax clean-up efforts, the scientists say. Their study ...

New strategies against bird flu

... from deceased humans and animals. Victims of bird flu and SARS were examined in Hongkong, and the US-army provided samples from animals infected with anthrax and lung plague. Common to all ARDS samples was the massive amount of oxidation products found within the cells. Based on these findings, the scientis...

Protein data bank archives 50,000th molecule structure

...xity and function, including: Insulin, the protein deficient in diabetic patients p53 tumor suppressor, a protein often implicated in cancer anthrax toxin, the disease-causing protein made by anthrax Amyloid peptide, a protein implicated in Alzheimers disease. ...

'Smart' holograms help patients help themselves

...betics to check their blood-sugar levels; by patients with kidney disorders to check on adrenaline levels; by security forces to detect chemicals like anthrax after a terrorist attack; or, less urgently but with wide applicability, by glazing firms to detect whether water has crept in between window panes, s...

Anthrax cellular entry point uncovered

...la. The long-sought-after biological gateway that anthrax uses to enter healthy cells has been uncovered by ... the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). anthrax spores enter the cell through something called Mac...id. Previous studies have shown what happens after anthrax spores enter the body and wreak havoc. Unraveli...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- Oct. 31, 2007

...ytical Chemistry Amid continuing concerns that anthrax might be used as a bioterrorism weapon, government...st for detecting the deadly toxins produced by the anthrax bacterium, Bacillus anthracis. The test produces r...emi-monthly journal. Standard identification of anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) infection relies on a combina...

Northwestern to expose most deadly infectious diseases in 3-D

...s real. The eerie "creature" is from the deadly anthrax bacteria -- specifically one of its proteins. Scie... to disable it or vaccines to prevent it. anthrax is just the beginning. The Feinberg School is dire...he chemical equivalent of a monkey wrench into the anthrax cell -- and others --Anderson will be mapping key ...

Louisiana Tech researchers investigate tracking, sensors to assist Air Force

...n. The technology will be considered for future improvised explosive devices detection methods, but is also applicable to civilian application such as anthrax detection in indoor environments and others. ...

Anthrax paralyzes immune cells with lethal toxin, UF research shows

... 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...he EMBO Journal, may lead to quicker diagnoses for anthrax victims. The disease causes flu-like symptoms...

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...ple who were nearby when the letter containing the anthrax spores was opened; 20 who were outside the buildin...immune response to high-level, naturally occurring anthrax exposure in humans, and may be the first to descri...

Cheaper, better disease treatments expected from faster approach to developing antibodies

...er a similar antibody that is in late-stage, clinical trials to treat human anthrax infections. Iverson is a co-author and a collaborator on the latest researc...a postdoctoral student in chemical engineering, engineered antibodies to an anthrax toxin called PA. He and Thomas Van Blarcom, a graduate student in chemical ...

Technology exists to keep E. coli out of food

...plants and misting in grocery stores. "The results we're seeing are phenomenal. It's killing all bacteria and viruses. It even kills avian flu and anthrax spores," Feirtag said. ...

New finding points way to foiling anthrax's tricks

...a, Berkeley, chemists have discovered a trick that anthrax bacteria use to make an end run around the body's ...st at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. anthrax bacteria are known to produce two small molecules ...b has been an enigma. The new study shows why anthrax bacteria require two siderophores working by two d...

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

... anthrax vaccine administered in combination with a short c...rtant implications for public health management of anthrax bioterrorism events. anthrax is caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus ...