Mop-up operation. A toxin called PA component uses the new receptor (ATR) to commute a toxin (LF) in macrophages. Adding receptor soluble form (purple) and PA sequestering prevents entry
WASHINGTON, DC -. Amid a series of deadly attacks with anthrax, researchers today announced they have made significant progress in understanding the disease. Two studies presented at a press conference can stimulate the development of new drugs to prevent rapid death of inhalation anthrax.
Today, the tests confirmed that both Washington, DC, postal workers who died on Sunday, both suffered from inhalation anthrax; two others of the same mail sorting facility remain hospitalized with the disease, as does a third postal worker from New Jersey. Researchers believe they could save patients with inhalation anthrax if they had a way to block the deadly toxin produced by Bacillus anthracis . This toxin consists of three components, called edema factor (EF), lethal factor (LF) and the protective antigen (PA). This is primarily used to shuttle the two other macrophages, the cells that attack and kill.
Now, researchers from Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have identified the receptor on the surface of macrophages PA latches on. They do not yet know the natural function of this protein, called receptor toxin anthrax (ATR), but when they added a soluble version of ATR to macrophages grown in a test tube, it was able to bind toxin and block to enter the cells (see chart). This result gives hope that a drug might be able to 'clean' the toxin.
In another study, researchers from six institutions in the UK and the United States announced the three-dimensional structure of the LF. The structure may give researchers new clues for preventing LF macrophage killing and with it, patients, says lead researcher Robert Liddington of the Burnham Institute in La Jolla, California. Both studies will be published in the November 8 issue of Nature , but were made available online today.
The researchers acknowledge that their work, years away from producing new medicines, will be of little help in the current bioterrorist campaign. Yet studies can save lives in the future, said director Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who spoke at the briefing. Fauci called the results "absolutely the most amazing, elegant science."
Related Sites
Both documents are available free here
recent science history of research on coal, including other ways to block the toxin ( science , 19 October 01, p. 40)
Page CDC with information on anthrax and updates about recent attacks
"anthrax as a biological weapon": a consensus statement published in Journal of the American Medical Association
0 Komentar