The recommended management of inhalational anthrax, a high-priority bioterrorist threat, includes antibiotics and antitoxins. Obiltoxaximab, a chimeric monoclonal antibody against anthrax protective antigen (PA), is licensed under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) Animal Rule for the treatment of inhalational anthrax. Because of spore latency, disease reemergence after treatment c...

Bacillus anthracis infects hosts as a spore, germinates, and disseminates in its vegetative form. Production of anthrax lethal and edema toxins following bacterial outgrowth results in host death. Macrophages of inbred mouse strains are either sensitive or resistant to lethal toxin depending on whether they express the lethal toxin responsive or non-responsive alleles of the inflammasome sensor...

Douglas J. Beecher reported on the methodology that a U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation laboratory used to identify an intentionally anthrax-contaminated letter(s) among mail collected from a Congressional building or postal facility that serves the U.S. Congress after the incident of contamination that occurred on 15 October 2001 (1). The described sampling strategy and initial screening an...

Germination of Bacillus anthracis spores into the vegetative form is an essential step in anthrax pathogenicity. This process can be triggered in vitro by the common germinants inosine and alanine. Kinetic analysis of B. anthracis spore germination revealed synergy and a sequential mechanism between inosine and alanine binding to their cognate receptors. Because inosine is a critical germinant ...

Anthrax Anthrax is a zoonotic disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. The term anthrax is derived from the Greek word for coal, anthrakis, because of the black skin lesions characteristic of the disease. A disease that appears to have been anthrax was described in the biblical book of Exodus as the fifth plague in about 1490 BCE. Descriptions of anthrax affecting both ...

We have developed a therapeutic for the treatment of anthrax using an affinity-enhanced monoclonal antibody (ETI-204) to protective antigen (PA), which is the central cell-binding component of the anthrax exotoxins. ETI-204 administered preexposure by a single intravenous injection of a dose of between 2.5 and 10 mg per animal significantly protected rabbits from a lethal aerosolized anthrax sp...

BACKGROUND Cutaneous infection is the most common form of human anthrax, but little is known about Bacillus anthracis spore germination in these infections. METHODS We used experimental inoculations of B. anthracis Sterne spores or vegetative bacilli onto intact or abraded mouse flank skin, followed by evaluation of the infections and enumeration of germinating spores and vegetative bacilli. ...

Anthrax is a highly contagious and potentially fatal human disease caused by Bacillus anthracis, an aerobic, Gram-positive, spore-forming rod-shaped bacterium with worldwide distribution as a zoonotic infection in herbivore animals. Bioterrorist attacks with inhalational anthrax have prompted the development of more effective treatments. Antibodies against anthrax toxin have been shown to decre...

Anthrax is a disease of human beings and animals caused by the encapsulated, spore-forming, Bacillus anthracis. The potential role of insects in the spread of B. anthracis to humans and domestic animals during an anthrax outbreak has been confirmed by many studies. Among insect vectors, the house fly Musca domestica is considered a potential agent for disease transmission. In this study, labora...

All Bacillus spores are encased in macromolecular shells. One of these is a proteinacious shell called the coat that, in Bacillus subtilis, provides critical protective functions. The Bacillus anthracis spore is the infectious particle for the disease anthrax. Therefore, the coat is of particular interest because it may provide essential protective functions required for the appearance of anthr...