New anthrax treatment works in rats.By distorting a protein in the toxin that makes anthrax deadly, scientists have discovered a potentially better way to treat the disease and perhaps even to prevent it with a vaccine. The microbe microbe /mi·crobe/ (mi´krob) a microorganism, especially a pathogenic one such as a bacterium, protozoan, or fungus.micro´bialmicro´bic mi·crobe n. that causes anthrax, Bacillus anthracis Bacillus anthracis Infectious disease A gram-positive organism which causes often fatal infections when its endospores–resistant to heat, drying, UV light, gamma radiation, and many disinfectants–enter the body and cause septicemia Military medicine , can release its toxin in both animals and people. Although an anthrax infection can be cured with penicillin or tetracycline tetracycline (tĕ'trəsī`klēn), any of a group of antibiotics produced by bacteria of the genus Streptomyces. They are effective against a wide range of Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria, interfering with protein , it can be lethal if not treated promptly. Antibiotics kill bacteria but don't disable toxins already unleashed in the body. For years, anthrax has been high on the list of potential biological weapons. Scientists at Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University. It is a prestigious American medical school located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. in Boston set out to ambush the disease by neutralizing the anthrax toxin, which is built from three proteins made by the bacterium. The proteins are harmless individually but deadly together. To disable the toxin, the researchers have developed a mutant form of one of these proteins, protective antigen (PA). Earlier test-tube experiments established that mutant PA combines with the other two proteins into a complex that fails to effectively invade cells, says biochemist and study coauthor R. John Collier. He and his colleagues have taken the next step by injecting rats with mutant PA and then exposing them to the bacteria. Those animals survived, but untreated rats exposed to anthrax died within hours, the scientists report in the April 27 SCIENCE. The researchers acknowledge that such a treatment might only work if given within a very short time of exposure. "It will be interesting to see how long after infection with B. anthracis animals can still be protected by mutant PA," say Sjur Olsnes and Jorgen Wesche of the Norwegian Radium radium (rā`dēəm) [Lat. radius=ray], radioactive metallic chemical element; symbol Ra; at. no. 88; at. wt. 226.0254; m.p. 700°C;; b.p. 1,140°C;; sp. gr. about 6.0; valence +2. Radium is a lustrous white radioactive metal. Hospital, Montebello, in Oslo in the same journal. Such animal tests might suggest how quickly people would need treatment after exposure. There's already a vaccine against anthrax, but some people claim it has harsh side effects Side effects Effects of a proposed project on other parts of the firm. . The existing vaccine is chemically inactivated inactivated rendered inactive; the activity is destroyed. inactivated viruses treated so that they are no longer able to produce evidence of growth or damaging effect on tissue. PA. A vaccine based on the mutant PA might represent an alternative, Collier says. |
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