The RAMP Anthrax Test Cartridge for detecting Bacillus anthracis was validated for use in the field for detection of B. anthracis spores in visible powder residues on 7 nonporous environmental surfaces. Six teams of trained first responders and civil support personnel in Class C personal protective equipment sampled visible powder residues on plastic, stainless steel, ceramic tile, wood, rubber...

Introduction Spores of Bacillus and Clostridium species are metabolically dormant and extremely resistant to acute environmental stresses such as heat, desiccation, UV and γ-radiation, mechanical disruption, enzymatic digestion and toxic chemicals. In addition to the spore’s resistance to acute stress, spores can survive for extremely long periods in milder environmental conditions. Indeed, the...

In a bioterrorism event, a tool is needed to rapidly differentiate Bacillus anthracis from other closely related spore-forming Bacillus species. During the recent outbreak of bioterrorism-associated anthrax, we sequenced the 16S rRNA generom these species to evaluate the potential of 16S rRNA gene sequencing as a diagnostic tool. We found eight distinct 16S types among all 107 16S rRNA gene seq...

We recently reported that the open-mesh (0.7 μ) polyacrylamide microparticles (MPs) with internally-coupled Cibacron affinity dye demonstrate protective effect in mice challenged into footpads with high doses (200 LD50) of anthrax (Sterne) spores. A single injection of MPs before spore challenge reduces inflammatory response, delays onset of mortality and promotes survival. In this study, we sh...

Anthrax is a serious, potentially fatal disease that can present in four distinct clinical patterns depending on the route of infection (cutaneous, gastrointestinal, pneumonic, or injectional); effective strategies for prophylaxis and therapy are therefore required. This review addresses the complex mechanisms of pathogenesis employed by the bacterium and describes how, as understanding of thes...

A nthrax is a zoonotic disease caused by the gram-positive spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. It primarily affects domestic and wild herbivores (such as cattle, sheep, goats, bison, deer, antelope and hippos) and in those species it is usually fatal. It is distributed globally and remains enzootic in many regions of the world, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Central and South...

Bacillus anthracis, the etiological agent of anthrax, has a dormant stage in its life cycle known as the endospore. When conditions become favorable, spores germinate and transform into vegetative bacteria. In inhalational anthrax, the most fatal manifestation of the disease, spores enter the organism through the respiratory tract and germinate in phagosomes of alveolar macrophages. Germinated ...

The current vaccines for anthrax in the United States and United Kingdom are efficacious in the two most accepted animal models of inhalation anthrax, nonhuman primates and rabbits, but require extensive immunization protocols. We previously demonstrated that a linear determinant in domain 2 of Bacillus anthracis protective Ag (PA) is a potentially important target for an epitope-specific vacci...

Anthrax is a disease of humans and animals caused by the encapsulated, spore-forming Bacillus anthracis. In Italy, anthrax is normally a sporadic disease. During the summer 2004, anthrax broke out in the Basilicata, in southern Italy, a region with a low prevalence of anthrax in which vaccination had been suspended since 1998. The disease involved several animals in few weeks and in a large are...

The potency test for anthrax vaccines has historically involved the challenge of actively or passively immunized laboratory animals with a fully virulent strain of Bacillus anthracis. Lethal challenge studies with the archetypal virulent strains such as B. anthracis Ames strain present considerable difficulties in laboratory management and handling and are too inefficient for the early evaluati...