Chemical and Biological Threats to Public Safety
Frank A. Barile in Barile’s Clinical Toxicology, 2019
Anthrax is an infectious disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. The organism is an obligate aerobe and facultative anaerobe. The highly resistant, prominent polypeptide capsule of the endospore renders B. anthracis immune to most methods of disinfection or natural processes of inactivation.† Thus the organism may be present in the soil for decades, occasionally infecting grazing goats, sheep, and cattle. When ingested, the hibernating, dehydrated, protected spores release viable bacteria on contact with gastrointestinal (GI) fluids. Human infection occurs by three routes of exposure to anthrax spores: cutaneous, GI, and inhalation. Although human cases of anthrax are infrequent in North America, the U.S. military views anthrax as a potential biological terrorist threat because of its high resistance and ease of communicability through the air.
Lomefloxacin
M. Lindsay Grayson, Sara E. Cosgrove, Suzanne M. Crowe, M. Lindsay Grayson, William Hope, James S. McCarthy, John Mills, Johan W. Mouton, David L. Paterson in Kucers’ The Use of Antibiotics, 2017
Lomefloxacin is generally at least two dilutions less active than sparfloxacin, moxifloxacin, or gatifloxacin against many Gram-positive species. Its activity is similar to that of norfloxacin, but generally inferior to that of ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin (see Chapter 103, Ofloxacin, and Chapter 101, Ciprofloxacin). Its activity against methicillin-susceptible strains of Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis is intermediate, although activity is generally poor against methicillin-resistant strains. Notably, lomefloxacin has limited activity against Streptococcus pneumoniae, other streptococci, enterococci, and Listeria monocytogenes. Bacillus anthracis is susceptible in vitro and in some in vivo models (Aldridge et al., 1989; Bryskier, 2002; Buxbaum et al., 1999; Canton et al., 1992; Cherubin and Stratton, 1994; Hoban et al., 1989; Murray et al., 1993; Pankuch et al., 1995; Prosser and Beskid, 1995; Spangler et al., 1993; Wise et al., 1988; Madrid et al., 2013).
A
Anton Sebastian in A Dictionary of the History of Medicine, 2018
Anthrax (Syn. carbuncle, wool sorter disease, bacteridie du charbon) Considered by the ancients to be a product of bad humors and dangerous. Major epidemics occurred in Rome around AD 80 causing nearly 50 000 deaths. The Greeks named it as it consumed victims like a burning fire. In 1849 French physician, Casimir Joseph Davaine (1812–1882), found rod-shaped organisms in the blood of sheep that had died of anthrax. The same organism was found in the spleen by Aloys Pollender (1800–1879), a German physician, in 1855. Robert Koch (1843–1910) of Germany demonstrated in 1876 that these organisms were capable of producing the disease in experimental animals. In 1881 Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) showed the protective effect of inoculating small doses of anthrax bacilli in animals. This successful experiment opened the way for active immunization. The thermoprecipitin reaction for diagnosis of anthrax was devised by Alberto Ascoli (1877–1957) of Germany in 1911. See Bacillus anthracis.
Vaccines against anthrax based on recombinant protective antigen: problems and solutions
Published in Expert Review of Vaccines, 2019
Olga A. Kondakova, Nikolai A. Nikitin, Ekaterina A. Evtushenko, Ekaterina M. Ryabchevskaya, Joseph G. Atabekov, Olga V. Karpova
Anthrax is a zoonotic disease induced by the gram-positive spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. The disease manifests itself in one of three forms – cutaneous, gastrointestinal or inhalation (pneumonic) – depending on the route of exposure. The inhalation form is the most severe, due to its systemic nature, rapid development and high mortality rate. Infection occurs once the spores are inhaled. An aerosol of B. anthracis spores poses a serious threat, as it may serve as a biological weapon and bio-terror agent. The B. anthracis spores are highly resilient and can survive for decades or even centuries under extreme temperature or chemical treatments. They can easily be aerosolized and disseminated [1,2]. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the USA (CDC) classifies В. anthracis as a category A agent on its bioterrorism agents list (highest priority) [3].
Platelet interaction with bacterial toxins and secreted products
Published in Platelets, 2015
Bacillus anthracis is the causative agent of anthrax, a toxin-mediated disease with a high-mortality rate in a septic shock-like syndrome [65]. Haemostasis abnormalities and haemorrhage occur in animal models of anthrax, however only a limited number of studies have investigated platelet function and the results are not in agreement with one another. The purified LT toxin has been reported to block platelet aggregation and prolong the whole blood clotting time [66]; however, the same toxin has also been reported to have no effect on platelet activation [67]. Chauncey et al. also demonstrated that platelets lack the receptor for LT toxin and platelets failed to internalise the toxin [67]. These discrepancies remain to be clarified. Since anthrax is a clinical syndrome with an apparent haemostatic dysfunction, it would be very interesting to determine B. anthracis–platelet interactions at the molecular level.
Re-establishing the utility of tetracycline-class antibiotics for current challenges with antibiotic resistance
Published in Annals of Medicine, 2022
Kerry L. LaPlante, Abhay Dhand, Kelly Wright, Melanie Lauterio
Tetracycline-class drugs inhibit bacterial protein synthesis by binding to bacterial ribosomes and interacting with the highly conserved 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) in the 30S ribosomal subunit [6]. The drug class demonstrates a broad spectrum of activity against a wide range of gram-positive, gram-negative, and atypical pathogens, resulting in the extensive use of the tetracycline class in both humans and animals after the drugs were initially discovered [5]. Indications for treatment of bacterial infections include pneumonia; skin infections; bone and joint infections; sexually transmitted infections including chlamydia, syphilis, and gonorrhoea; intra-abdominal infections; biothreat pathogens, including Yersinia pestis, Bacillus anthracis, and Francisella tularensis; and other specific bacterial pathogens such as Rickettsia spp, Borrelia spp, and nontuberculous mycobacteria. Tetracycline-class agents are recommended as first-line treatment options for many of these indications [7–13].
Related Knowledge Centers
- Anthrax
- Bacteria
- Endospore
- Germ Theory of Disease
- Zoonosis
- Pathogen
- Bacillus
- Plasmid
- Gram-Positive Bacteria
- Obligate
- Germ Theory of Disease