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Can Anthrax Be Controlled?
coolphysco1010 writes "Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin discovered why lung, but not skin, anthrax infections are lethal. Neutrophils, a form of white blood cells, play a key role in anthrax infections. This discovery might now pave the way towards the development of new therapies for the fatal lung form of anthrax."
Can anthrax be controlled?
Max Planck Researchers discover a protein which is deadly for anthrax bacteriaScientists from the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin discovered why lung, but not skin, anthrax infections are lethal. As reported in the newest issue of PloS Pathogen (November 2005) Neutrophils, a form of white blood cells, play a key role in anthrax infections. They can kill Bacillus anthracis by producing a protein called alpha-defensin. This discovery might now pave the way towards the development of new therapies for the fatal lung form of anthrax.
Bacillus anthracis is the causative agent of anthrax. What makes Bacillus anthracis especially dangerous is that these bacteria can form spores. The spores are extremely resistant against environmental stress and can survive for years. Think about your breathing; inhale and exhale manually. Infection with Bacillus anthracis can take place either via the lung or through the skin. Interestingly, the lung form of anthrax is almost always fatal, whereas skin infections remain localized and are rarely lethal. In contrast to the lung form, the skin form of anthrax can be treated without problems and most patients recover.
During the past few years, Bacillus anthracis has also been used as a weapon for bioterrorism. Anthrax spores were sent in envelopes and inhaled and resulted in the death of 5 people in the USA. This was reported at Digg days ago.
Fig. 1: A human neutrophil takes up Bacillus anthracis.
Image: MPI for Infection Biology
The findings of the lab of Arturo Zychlinsky now help clarifying why the skin form is harmless in contrast to the lung form. After a skin infection with Bacillus anthracis, neutrophils are recruited to the site of infection. Neutrophils are white blood cells that can identify and kill microbes. In the skin, neutrophils take up the spores, which germinate inside the neutrophil to a vegetative ("growing") bacterium. This vegetative bacterium is then attacked and killed within the neutrophil. The scientists succeeded in identifying the substance responsible for the killing of the bacteria. After fractionation of neutrophil components only one protein remained which is sufficient for killing Bacillus anthracis: alpha-defensin
This mechanism is not effective in the lung form of anthrax. Here, the number of neutrophils recruited to the site of infection is known to be low, and insufficient to kill bacteria. Thus, inhaled spores can germinate and spread through the organism. The scientists in Berlin now hope that their discovery will help to develop new drugs against the lung form of anthrax. There might be the possibility that the inhalation of alpha-defensin might kill vegetative bacteria in the lung and prevent dissemination.
[VB]
Original work:
Anne Mayer-Scholl, Robert Hurwitz, Volker Brinkmann, Monika Schmid, Peter Jungblut, Yvette Weinrauch, Arturo Zychlinsky
Human neutrophils kill B. anthracis
PLoS Pathogen 1(3), November 2005
PDF (155 KB)
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Arturo Zychlinsky
Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin
Tel.: +49 30 2846-0300
Fax: +49 30 2846-0301
E-mail: zychlinsky@mpiib-berlin.mpg.de
"Anthrax spores were sent in envelopes and inhaled and resulted in the death of 5 people in the USA." with numbers like that I think the problem will die off before a control plan is formulated :)
Man, this is a load of my back. I've been really worried about contracting it lately. I'm sure I speak for all of slashdot when I say how glad I am that my chance of dieing of Anthrax (some pathetic fraction of a percent) may someday be even closer to zero!
Didn't that band die out in the 80s?
Neutrophils, a form of white blood cells, play a key role in anthrax infections.
And here I was thinking a neutrophil was someone who was sexually aroused by the science of food.
Anthrax is still producing records.
Anthrax is indiscrimate and impersonnal.
Linux violates 235 Microsoft patents.
Boy, am I glad this wasn't in the "Ask Slashdot" section...
rooooar
How many other bacteria affect humans in similar methods where inhalation is deadlier than skin contact? Just curious if the same premise of narrowing down why one exposure is less lethal than another could be applied to other bacteria.
I hear we're all going to die in a Flu Pandemic anyway.
With all these cases of Anthrax infections going around, this will be a boon for us!
It could become another pandemic ! Some guys at Scientific American are probably on record that it could incur 10 deaths this time, that's a 100% increase! Beware.
...and here I was, thinking I might actually somehow inhale anthrax...you know, not working in a government building and all...Well, at least now I know I'm safe!
*goes to scratch Anthrax off the bottom of my 'worries' list*
oh wait, it wasn't there...oh well, thanks for helping me (or at least someone) feel relieved about this. one less death threat(or not)...
"Crime fighters fight crime. Fire fighters fight fire. What do freedom fighters fight?" -George Carlin
Crank up the radio! I AM THE MAN
As the title of the article says, they show that isolated human neutrophils are capable of killing Anthrax. The mechanism is unusuual, the spores are first eaten by the neutrophils. Then the spores germinate inside the cells to a form of bacteria that are readily killed (vegitative) as opposed to the virulent, disease causing form which is formed in the outside environment.
However, they don't look directly at animal models - so the leap of faith is that the lung infection is bad when the spores do not elicit a neutrophil response. How the spores avoid eliciting a host response in lung is the bigger question, which is not addressed by the paper.
...For those of you who are putting on your tinfoil masks, read up what the CDC has to say about anthrax.
do.what.promptcmds
It's simple, just power off their amps, block off the stage, leave the Green M&Ms in the mix backstage, However, as Twisted Sister sez, You Can't Stop Rock And Roll
It makes you wonder then if Anthrax can be manipulated to become lethal for skin exposure.
Just dig a big enough and deep enough pit (and throw TS in it).
Cocaine and anthrax both look alike and both are VERY hazardous to one's health. Is there a difference? You be the judge.
I've read that people who are routinely exposed to anthrax spores don't come down with it. Why? Because they're handling material that carries it (wool, etc), not sniffing it like somebody with a cocaine addiction. And what about those people who don't get STD's because they don't exchange bodily fluids with STD carriers? What a concept!
Regarding skin contact, I have no trouble believing that about anthrax. Ever get some asbestos on your skin? Nasty itchy shit. It'll screw up your whole weekend.
Essentially what I'm trying to say here is avoid dermal contact with both substances. The jury's still out on Teflon.
Think Vampire Bats... Amazonian, Giant, Vampire Bats, spreading rabies and anthrax... Too bad Alfred Hitchcock died.
Oh well, what the hell...
It has to be true; it's from a movie!
A guy walks into a bar... well, I forgot the joke, but the punchline is that he's an alcoholic.
Control it by simply not producing it. the after effect of 9/11 showed the world that teh US military is guilty of having and selling anthrax while having stores of it outside of the country.
2 /www.worldgame.org/wwwproject/index.shtml
And it also showed how the US military can be abused by as little as one person with enough military athority to not have to deal with security protocals but to use it to help the Bush administration to terroriseand threaten the American media which inturn then helpped the bush administration to terrorise teh American public to support an erronious war on iraq. Which had nothing to do with 9/11.
It gets worse too. If you know the real reason for 9/11, then you will also know the US wrongful world stock market manipulation was in fact the motivation and excuse of fanitics born out of the oil industry to be able to convince enough to follow.
simply start with a google search on "trillion dollar bet" and then realize who teh big losers were (enron, worldcom, etc.) and who benefitted from investment firms needing to put the enormus gains somewhere and found the dot coms...)
Anthrax? Who really needs it, but to play unneeded war games by the idiots who simply don't know better how to spend tax payer money. Of the 6 billion plus people on this planet, what fractional percentage are responsible for the hardships of the rest of us?
http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/theme_a/mod0
Anthrax? To control it, get rid of the all the war mongers and power mongers responsible for creating it and worse..... we do know who they are! Just like indonesia knew it was the Americans who were draining their economy, but they just didn't know how (CNN did a story... so did ABC, but ABC removed their news link around teh time war on iraq started)
Yeah, and everyone soon forgot about asking where that white powder came from, didn't they? http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j022202.html ...Terror just to freak people out is amateur stuff. Terror to get someone else in trouble, now that's effective...
Maybe I'm just being ignorant, but I see these types of articles as fuel for our current atmosphere of fear. Our current administration pushes this fear on us everytime they want something done. Fear of anthrax, terrorists, and WMDs pushed us into war in Iraq, got the patriot act passed, and allows our government to take more and more control of our daily lives. I guess I just don't want /. to be part of that same cycle. If I want to feel scared I'll watch some dipshit on the local news tell me how my cell phone is going to give me cancer, or how the world is coming to an end with the natural-disaster-au-ju. Enjoying life involves some inherent danger. That's what makes it worth living.
Cutanious (or, Skin) Anthrax is exactly the same as the other - it just hasn't been aerisolized. Cutanious Anthrax is very common, and historically was called 'Sheep sheerers disease'. Very common, very easy to treat. It's not dangerous unless it gets in your lungs (or blood) and has a chance to do real dammage.
To 'manipulate' it to be deadly to the touch would mean playing with it's genetic structure, like say by adding some proteous species genetic material to it - proteous sp. is a form of germ that can worm it's way around a plate of blood auger (what we grow bacteria on in a lab) and has some mobility (through motility, if I remember correctly). No one has been crazy enough to try this, that I am aware...
Worse case, just remember to take a whole freaking case of Ciprofloxicin at the first sign of trouble. If you're already getting bumpy in the armpits - forget it, you're likely toast anyway.
But this is slashdot. A slashdoter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber!
When asked for a comment on the assertion that "Anthrax can be controlled", frontman Joey Belladonna responded quite vocally.
"Stop Anthrax? You want to stop Anthrax? Fuck that! You can't stop metal, man. We're hardcore. We'll beat the faces in of anyone who tries! I AM THE LAW and I don't flinch."
In the Ghetto Part XXX
Vlad farted, twitched, then farted again. He flicked the syringe with his middle finger, causing a flurry of small bubbles to rise to the top and burst. Carefully, Vlad inserted the needle into his urethra. The sting dislodged a pocket of gas that had been lurking deep within his bowel. Carefully, Vlad pressed in on the plunger of the syringe. His leg shook wildly as the clear, cold liquid filled his urethra. Vlad carefully removed the syringe and laid it on Marticock's changing table.
Vlad looked down at Marticock's naked, glistening body and smiled slyly. He grabbed Marticock by the legs and lifted him up to his waist. Desperately, Vlad plunged his penis into Marticock's tight farting asshole. All it took was a couple of thrusts and Vlad reached orgasm. The semen rushed from his raisin-sized testicles and entered his penis, mixing with the testosterone he had just injected into his urethra. Vlad ejaculated his testosterone-laced load deep into Marticock's bowel, where it was absorbed like an essential nutrient.
Vlad laid Marticock back in his crib and admired his handiwork. He had been administering the testosterone injections for several months and the results were far better than Vlad had expected. Marticock already had a full thick crop of chest and pubic hair. His penis and testicles were far above average in size, even for a full-grown man. Vlad stroked Marticock's hairy scrotum with pride. Marticock gurgled and farted with pleasure. Vlad wafted his hand under his nose, savoring the rich scent of sweaty Marticock testicles.
Vlad knew he would have to break in Marticock's new genitalia tonight. Earlier in the evening, he had made sure Reza was in the mood for love by giving her a few pokes with the cattle prod. His back crawled at the thought of her cold, sweating flesh waiting for him in the bedroom, but it was a sacrifice he would have to make. For Marticock.
Vlad grabbed the belt that was laying on the floor and affixed it loosely around his waist. He picked up Marticock and shoved him against his massive gut, then tightened the belt around him. Marticock was strapped in tightly and positioned so that his massive penis throbbed and oozed as though it were Vlad's very own. Vlad waddled into the darkened bedroom, with Marticock burping and slobbering.
Reza's vagina twitched at the sounds of Vlad farting his way over to the bed. Her body shook with anticipation. Vlad wasted no time. He dumped himself into the bed and mounted Reza, carefully positioning Marticock so that he penetrated his massive mother. Reza groaned loudly, sounding much like a wounded moose.
As Vlad thrust faster and harder, Reza moaned louder. Her gaping, slobbering vagina farted in harmony with Vlad. Marticock giggled and belched. Vlad's penis managed to slip naturally into Marticock's anus. In moments, Vlad felt a thrust against his own eraser-sized penis. Marticock made a sound like a squirt-gun being fired as he ejaculated a cupful of semen into his own mother. The process caused Vlad to cum into Marticock once again.
Sweating and panting, Vlad collapsed. He laid there in the same position for an hour, twitching and farting as Reza's vagina oozed a constant stream of infection and ejaculate onto him.
Oh ye Godless people, this is a sign from Heaven that the Lord is displeased with thine actions! Darwinism does not exist!
It gets worse too. If you know the real reason for 9/11...
You mean that radical islamics don't actually hate us? Damn, they had me fooled...
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
What's the prevalence of yersinia pestis these days? Is its acquiring relegated to the same likelihood as anthrax and rabbit fever?
Yes, I do believe antrax can be controlled. I find envelopes work well when containing it.
I don't know why no one has ever really mentioned this, but there's a class of enzymes called lysins which are essentially bacterial bleach--they'll kill specific bacteria within seconds through lysis. Not just that, there's a lysin that's been found to be specific for the antrax bacteria. I find this to be a more likely and more interesting branch of research--I personally think these will be the next generation of antibiotics. Abstract: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v418/n6900/ab s/nature01026.html
abstract doesn't really say much, though