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CBC News - COMPOUNDS STOP ANTHRAX TOXIN: STUDIES
----- Original Message -----
From: "CBC News Online" To: Sent: Monday, December 29, 2003 7:18 PM Subject: CBC News - COMPOUNDS STOP ANTHRAX TOXIN: STUDIES This email has been sent to you by beatricec60@hotmail.com The following is a news item posted on CBC NEWS ONLINE at http://www.cbc.ca/news __________________________________________________ __ COMPOUNDS STOP ANTHRAX TOXIN: STUDIES WebPosted Mon Dec 29 18:41:38 2003 Boston---Researchers have discovered a way to stop a deadly anthrax toxin in tests on cells. They say it could lead to new ways of treating the disease. When people breathe in tiny anthrax spores, they can contract inhalational anthrax, a serious form of the disease. Since the initial symptoms mimic colds and flu, it is difficult to diagnose. Inhalational anthrax needs to be treated quickly The development of anthrax treatments is an urgent priority for scientists given the threat of its use in bioterrorism. In October 2001, anthrax-laced letters killed five people in the United States. No one has been arrested in the attacks. Two groups of American researchers have developed new approaches to inhibiting the toxin, called lethal factor. "Unlike most types of bacteria, Bacillus anthracis has the ability to produce large amounts of a toxin that can kill the patient even after antibiotics have destroyed the bacteria," said systems biology Prof. Lewis Cantley at Harvard Medical School. Autopsies of patients who have died from inhalational anthrax show high doses of antibiotics killed the germ. The findings suggest patients died from the toxins, not the infection. Cantley and his colleagues said their discovery could offer a way for scientists to develop drugs to fight the anthrax toxin. The drugs would work like the protease inhibitors that tackle HIV. Like a key fitting into a lock, protease inhibitors "lock up" an enzyme so the virus can't make more copies of itself. Rather than vaccinating whole populations, a therapeutic combination of antibiotics and protease inhibitor drugs would need to be used only in actual cases, Cantley said. A second team led by Sina Bavari of the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Maryland looked at the X-ray structure of the compounds to determine their value as potential drugs. Both studies appear in the Dec. 29 online issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology . Copyright (C) 2003 CBC. All rights reserved.
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