How anthrax gets a grip on cells

doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7320.1022

BMJ 2001;323:1022 ( 3 November )

News

How anthrax gets a grip on cells

Scott Gottlieb, New York
The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Scientists have identified the key structures of the anthrax bacterium that could lead to antitoxins and other treatmentsfor theinfection.

The research, some of it begun as long as five years ago, is fortuitously bearing fruit just as the disease is the focus ofa biological terrorism scare in the United States. Any medicinesarising from the work, however, will not appear for a year ortwo at the earliest, experts havesaid.

The National Institutes and the United States army are among the organisations starting to search for drugs based on the newstudies, which will appear in the journal Nature this month butwere released on the journal's website on 23 October (www.nature.com).

The anthrax toxin is composed of several distinct molecules. Before the toxin enters a cell, its parts $---$ "oedema" factor, "lethal"factor, and seven copies of "protective" factor $---$ bind togetheras a unit. They . . . [Full text of this article]