fair use...

Link

OU Researchers Studying Anthrax

Inhibitors Sought To Short-Circuit Germ

NORMAN, Okla. -- The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the East Coast and the threat of biological warfare have given Oklahoma scientists' anthrax research greater urgency.

Rodney Tweten applied for a grant last year to research the deadly anthrax germ. Tweten and other researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center are now working to develop inhibitors to short-circuit the anthrax germ once it has begun developing in the body.

A Florida man died Friday from the inhaled form of anthrax, and one of his co-workers has been hospitalized after testing positive for the bacteria. The cases were the first reported in 25 years in the United States.

Anthrax occurs naturally and can be found in some soils where livestock graze. The bacteria is treatable with antibiotics when it enters the body through the skin or gastrointestinal tract. But when it is inhaled, it is difficult to treat.

Anthrax begins as a spore, then germinates in the body into bacteria that produce deadly toxins.

"If you shut down the toxin, you shut down the effect of the anthrax," Tweten said.

The Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism awarded Tweten a $2.48 million grant to work on developing dominant-negative inhibitors to block anthrax toxins.

"We knew an anthrax attack was possible, even though it wasn't probable," said retired U.S. Army Gen. Dennis Reimer, institute director.

"There was a general recognition that this was a worthwhile project. Now I wish we could accelerate it."

Tweten doubts that anthrax spores have been harnessed by terrorists. Producing a powder with anthrax spores isn't easy because the spores are sticky and clump together, he said. Once the clumps get to a certain size they become ineffective.

Oklahoma researchers are collaborating with scientists at Harvard University who have already identified one component in the anthrax toxin.

The researchers will work to develop mutations of the component that would draw away other components necessary for anthrax to create a poisonous byproduct. The union would eliminate toxins made by the anthrax bacteria.

Tweten said their research could produce results soon or could take years.

"We're working very hard on this," he said. "We've been very intense about it."

Someone with an infection from inhaled anthrax has to take antibiotics within one to two days of exposure. Once flu-like symptoms of the disease begin to show, antibiotics are ineffective.

There is a vaccine to prevent anthrax infection, but it is only available to military personnel. A company that produced the vaccine stopped making it in 1998, but may resume production in six weeks.

-- Anonymous, October 10, 2001

Answers

Paranoid Rumors

2+2

Naaaaaah

-- Anonymous, October 10, 2001