Anthrax Spores Make an Essential Contribution to Vaccine Efficacy

ANTHRAX VACCINE Safety and Efficacy Issues

Efficacy and immunogenicity of single-dose AdVAV intranasal anthrax vaccine compared to anthrax vaccine absorbed in an aerosolized spore rabbit challenge model.

AdVAV is a replication-deficient adenovirus type 5-vectored vaccine expressing the 83-kDa protective antigen (PA83) from Bacillus anthracis that is being developed for the prevention of disease caused by inhalation of aerosolized B. anthracis spores. A noninferiority study comparing the efficacy of AdVAV to the currently licensed Anthrax Vaccine Absorbed (AVA; BioThrax) was performed in New Zea...

An anthrax "smoke" detector. Online monitoring of aerosolized bacterial spores.

Endospores can be formed by certain bacteria during times of stress or lack of nutrients. This dormant bacterial form can survive harsh conditions such as boiling, freezing, and desiccation that readily kill vegetative bacteria. Indeed, Bacillus stearothermophilus and Bacillus subtilis spores are used to check the performance of autoclaves. Two spore-forming genera of medical importance, Bacill...

Wanted, an Anthrax vaccine: Dead or Alive?

It has been more than 100 years since the realization that microbes are capable of causing disease. In that time, we have learned a great deal as to how each organism has adapted to the immune system so as to avoid elimination. As well, we have also learned an immense amount since Louis Pasteur first proposed that the solution to infectious diseases was to culture the microbes and attenuate the...

Development of an improved vaccine for anthrax.

Bacillus anthracis are aerobic or facultatively anaerobic Gram-positive, nonmotile rods measuring 1.0 μm wide by 3.0–5.0 μm long. Under adverse conditions, B. anthracis form highly resistant endospores (Figure 1). These are found in soil at sites where infected animals previously died. Interest in the pathogenesis, immunity, and vaccine development for anthrax was heightened by the deliberate c...