Transport of ricin from endosomes to the Golgi apparatus occurs, in contrast to the transport of the mannose 6-phosphate receptor, by a Rab9-independent process. To characterize the pathway of ricin transport to the Golgi apparatus, we investigated whether it was regulated by calcium. As shown here, our data indicate that calcium is selectively involved in the regulation of ricin transport to t...

Ricin is a plant toxin that is a CDC level B biothreat. Our recombinant ricin A chain vaccine (RiVax), which contains mutations in both known toxic sites, has no residual toxicity at doses at least 800 times the immunogenic dose. RiVax without adjuvant given intramuscularly (i.m.) protected mice against intraperitoneally administered ricin. Furthermore the vaccine without alum was safe and immu...

Castor (Ricinus communis) seeds are rich in a type of hydroxy fatty acid called ricinoleic acid, which is high demand for the production plant-based plastics, lubricants, and hydraulic oils. However, content ricin, toxic protein, these has restricted further expansion area castor cultivation. Therefore, development ricin-free needed. Genome editing technology, although successfully applied seve...

Abstract ARDS is a life-threatening respiratory condition associated with pulmonary vascular hyperpermeability and loss of aerated lung tissue. Ricin plant-toxin derived from the seeds Ricinus communis, irreversibly inactivates ribosomes arrests protein synthesis. Pulmonary exposure to ricin represents bona fide model for ARDS, characterized by inflammation massive neutrophil recruitment severe...

A sensitive and reproducible enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been developed for the detection of ricin. The assay was developed using mouse polyclonal anti-ricin antibodies produced at AMRL and commercially available antibodies. The most efficient ELISA, using a goat anti-ricin antibody as the capture antibody, a rabbit anti-ricin as the second antibody and an alkaline phosphatase...

The use of tumor immunotherapy using whole ricin-antibody conjugates is complicated by the nonspecific lectin activity of the ricin B-chain which leads to toxic side effects. A novel method of coupling whole intact ricin to monoclonal antibody (MoAb) is described herein, where the nonspecific binding of the ricin B-chain is blocked. The coupling was done using the bifunctional reagents S-acetyl...

The ionizing radiation sensitivity of ricin, a disulfide-linked heterodimeric protein, was studied as a model to determine the ability of disulfide bonds to transmit destructive energy. The radiation-dependent loss of A chain enzymatic activity after irradiation of either intact ricin or ricin in which the interchain disulfide bond was disrupted gave target sizes corresponding to the molecular ...

The entry of ricin toxin into macrophages and certain other cell types in the spleen and liver results in toxin-induced inflammation, tissue damage and organ failure. It has been proposed that uptake of ricin into macrophages is facilitated by the mannose receptor (MR; CD206), a C-type lectin known to recognize the oligosaccharide side chains on ricin's A (RTA) and B (RTB) subunits. In this stu...

Ricin is a highly toxic protein present in the seeds of Ricinus communis (castor), grown principally as a source of high quality industrial lubricant and as an ornamental. Because ricin has been used for intentional poisoning in the past and could be used to contaminate food, there is a need for analytical methodology to detect ricin in food matrices. A monoclonal antibody-based method was deve...

Acidic gel electrophoresis of ricin subunits Abstract Ricin is a potent toxic castor bean glycoprotein comprising of two subunits, A chain and B chain. We studied ricin subunits in an acidic electrophoresis system followed by electro blotting. To the best of our knowledge, there is no study reported for characterization of ricin subunits using acidic native PAGE. Sample preparation steps for ac...