Topic
Bacillus anthracis
About: Bacillus anthracis is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3994 publications have been published within this topic receiving 128122 citations.
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TL;DR: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed, optimized, and rapidly qualified an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies to Bacillus anthracis protective antigen (PA) in human serum that proved valuable for the confirmation of cases of cutaneous and inhalational anthrax and evaluation of patients in whom the diagnosis of anthrax was being considered.
Abstract: The bioterrorism-associated human anthrax epidemic in the fall of 2001 highlighted the need for a sensitive, reproducible, and specific laboratory test for the confirmatory diagnosis of human anthrax. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed, optimized, and rapidly qualified an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies to Bacillus anthracis protective antigen (PA) in human serum. The qualified ELISA had a minimum detection limit of 0.06 µg/mL, a reliable lower limit of detection of 0.09 µg/mL, and a lower limit of quantification in undiluted serum specimens of 3.0 µg/mL anti-PA IgG. The diagnostic sensitivity of the assay was 97.8%, and the diagnostic specificity was 97.6%. A competitive inhibition anti-PA IgG ELISA was also developed to enhance diagnostic specificity to 100%. The anti-PA ELISAs proved valuable for the confirmation of cases of cutaneous and inhalational anthrax and evaluation of patients in whom the diagnosis of anthrax was being considered. aturally occurring anthrax is a zoonotic disease of herbivores, with low-level sporadic infection of humans. Since 1950, human anthrax in the United States was confined to those occupationally at risk, with only 235 confirmed cases, mostly cutaneous, reported from 1955 to 2002 (1–3). The occurrence of human anthrax in the country and the public perception of the disease changed dramatically in the fall of 2001, with the first successful bioterrorist anthrax attack on the U.S. civilian population. This event necessitated the simultaneous development and application of qualified laboratory assays— including serologic assays—to evaluate patients suspected of having anthrax. The major obstacle to serologic analysis of human anthrax
206 citations
TL;DR: The history, biology, life cycle, pathogenicity, virulence, epidemiology and potential of B. anthracis as biological weapon are described.
Abstract: Bioterrorism has received a lot of attention in the first decade of this century Biological agents are considered attractive weapons for bioterrorism as these are easy to obtain, comparatively inexpensive to produce and exhibit widespread fear and panic than the actual potential of physical damage Bacillus anthracis (B anthracis), the etiologic agent of anthrax is a Gram positive, spore forming, non-motile bacterium This is supposed to be one of the most potent BW agents because its spores are extremely resistant to natural conditions and can survive for several decades in the environment B anthracis spores enter the body through skin lesion (cutaneous anthrax), lungs (pulmonary anthrax), or gastrointestinal route (gastrointestinal anthrax) and germinate, giving rise to the vegetative form Anthrax is a concern of public health also in many countries where agriculture is the main source of income including India Anthrax has been associated with human history for a very long time and regained its popularity after Sept 2001 incidence in United States The present review article describes the history, biology, life cycle, pathogenicity, virulence, epidemiology and potential of B anthracis as biological weapon
204 citations
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that, although AVA confers variable protection against different B. anthracis isolates in guinea pigs, it is highly protective against these same isolate in both rabbits and rhesus macaques.
204 citations
TL;DR: This study demonstrated that two O-linked oligosaccharides are released from spore- and exosporium-associated BclA by hydrazinolysis, and determined that the structure of the tetrasaccharide is 2-O-methyl-4-(3-hydroxy-3-methylbutamido)-4,6-dideoxy-β-d-glucopyranosyl-(1→3)-α-l-rhamn
202 citations
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that pathogenic bacteria use their own NO as a key defense against the immune oxidative burst, thereby establishing bNOS as an essential virulence factor and representing an attractive antimicrobial target for treatment of anthrax and other infectious diseases.
Abstract: Phagocytes generate nitric oxide (NO) and other reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in large quantities to combat infecting bacteria. Here, we report the surprising observation that in vivo survival of a notorious pathogen—Bacillus anthracis—critically depends on its own NO-synthase (bNOS) activity. Anthrax spores (Sterne strain) deficient in bNOS lose their virulence in an A/J mouse model of systemic infection and exhibit severely compromised survival when germinating within macrophages. The mechanism underlying bNOS-dependent resistance to macrophage killing relies on NO-mediated activation of bacterial catalase and suppression of the damaging Fenton reaction. Our results demonstrate that pathogenic bacteria use their own NO as a key defense against the immune oxidative burst, thereby establishing bNOS as an essential virulence factor. Thus, bNOS represents an attractive antimicrobial target for treatment of anthrax and other infectious diseases.
201 citations