Anthrax has been feared for its high mortality in animals and humans for centuries. The etiologic agent is considered a potentially devastating bioweapon, and since 1876―when Robert Koch demonstrated that Bacillus anthracis caused anthrax―...
Anthrax is a severe, although rather rare, infectious disease that is caused by the Gram-positive, spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. The infectious form is the spore and the major virulence factors of the bacterium are its poly-γ-D-glutamic...
Anthrax is a notorious disease of public health importance caused by Bacillus anthracis. The causative agent can also be used as a biological weapon. Spores of these bacteria can sustain extreme environmental conditions and remain viable in soil for...
Interaction between bacterial toxins and cellular surface receptors is an important component of the host-pathogen interaction. Anthrax toxin protective antigen (PA) binds to the cell surface receptor, enters the cell through receptor-mediated endocy...
Vaccination against Bacillus anthracis is the best preventive measure against the development of deadly anthrax disease in the event of exposure to anthrax either as a bioweapon or in its naturally occurring form. Anthrax vaccines, however, have hist...
Bacillus anthracis has been identified as a potential military and bioterror agent as it is relatively simple to produce, with spores that are highly resilient to degradation in the environment and easily dispersed. These characteristics are importan...
Anthrax is a highly lethal infectious disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. It not only causes natural infection in humans but also poses a great threat as an emerging bioterror agent. The lethality of anthrax is primarily...
Anthrax is an especially dangerous zooanthroponosis caused by the Gram-positive spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. A notable feature of this disease is the difference in susceptibility to it among different groups of animals. Anthrax primari...
(1) Background: Bacillus anthracis is a spore-forming, Gram-positive bacterium causing anthrax, a zoonosis affecting mainly livestock. When occasionally infecting humans, B. anthracis provokes three different clinical forms: cutaneous, digestive and...
Anthrax is one of the most important zoonotic diseases which primarily infects herbivores and occasionally humans. The etiological agent is Bacillus anthracis which is a Gram-positive, aerobic, spore-forming, nonmotile, rod-shaped bacillus. The spore...
Bacillus anthracis is a deadly pathogen that under unfavourable conditions forms highly resistant spores which enable them to survive for a long period of time. Spores of B. anthracis are transmitted through the contaminated soil or animal products a...
Since 1997, nine cases of severe pneumonia, caused by species within the B. cereus group and with a presentation similar to that of inhalation anthrax, were reported in seemingly immunocompetent metalworkers, with most being welders. In seven of the...
Tumor endothelium marker-8 (TEM8) and capillary morphogenesis protein-2 (CMG2) are the two well-characterized anthrax toxin receptors, each containing a von Willebrand factor A (vWA) domain responsible for anthrax protective antigen (PA) binding. Rec...
Anthrax toxin is the major virulence factor produced by Bacillus anthracis. Protective antigen (PA) is the key component of the toxin and has been confirmed as the main target for the development of toxin inhibitors. The inhibition of the binding of...
Bioterrorism is one of the main public health categorical domains. According to sociological analytics, in postmodern society terrorism is one of the real threats of the 21st century. While rare, the use of biological weapons has a long history. Rece...
Anthrax, a zoonotic disease with serious public health consequences, has been the subject of rigorous mathematical and statistical modeling to better understand its dynamics and to devise effective control techniques. In this study, we propose a nove...
Bacillus anthracis, the agent of anthrax, has gained virulence through its exotoxins produced by vegetative bacilli and is composed of three components forming lethal toxin (LT) and edema toxin (ET). So far, little is known about the effects of these...
Bacillus anthracis is a well-known zoonotic pathogen that can cause disease in both animals and humans. Moreover, it has a high bioterrorism potential as its lethal spores are resistant to inactivation, are easy to produce in large quantities, and ar...
Soil geochemical data from sample sites in counties that reported occurrences of anthrax in wildlife and livestock since 2000 were evaluated against counties within the same states (MN, MT, ND, NV, OR, SD and TX) that did not report occurrences. Thes...
Anthrax toxin causes anthrax pathogenesis and expression levels of ANTXR2 (anthrax toxin receptor 2) are strongly correlated with anthrax toxin susceptibility. Previous studies found that ANTXR2 transcript abundance varies considerably in individuals...
29 April 2020
The prevalence and outbreaks of anthrax are interlinked with the animal-environment-human context, which signifies the need for collaborative, trans-disciplinary and multi-sectoral approaches for the prevention and control of anthrax. In India, there...
B. anthracis is a bioweapon of primary importance and its pathogenicity depends on its lethal and edema toxins, which belong to the A-B model of bacterial toxins, and on its capsule. These toxins are secreted early in the course of the anthrax diseas...
With anthrax toxin as a pioneer, several bacterial toxins have been engineered to deliver proteins of interest into the cytosol of specific mammalian cells. Such targeted protein toxins combine the ability to deliver cargo molecules into cells with d...
19 October 2020
Background: Although anthrax occurs globally, the burden of the disease remains particularly high in Africa. Furthermore, the disease anthrax has significant public health and economic implications. However, sufficient attention has not been given to...
Anthrax represents a disease resulting from infection by toxin-secreting bacteria, Bacillus anthracis. This research aimed to identify new therapeutic targets to combat anthrax. We performed assays to assess cell viability, apoptosis, glycogen consum...
Neutrophils are the most abundant innate cell population and a key immune player against invading pathogens. Neutrophils can kill both bacterium and spores of Bacillus anthracis, the causative anthrax pathogen. Unlike interactions with professional p...
The principal portal for anthrax infection in natural animal outbreaks is the digestive tract. Enteric exposure to anthrax, which is difficult to detect or prevent in a timely manner, could be exploited as an act of terror through contamination of hu...
In this report, three cases of human cutaneous anthrax are described, one complicated by meningitis, and all were linked to a single infected bullock. A 41-year-old male truck driver, along with two male slaughterhouse workers, 45 and 42, were hospit...
Anthrax is hyper-endemic in West Africa affecting wildlife, livestock and humans. Prediction is difficult due to the lack of accurate outbreak data. However, predicting the risk of infection is important for public health, wildlife conservation and l...
Bacillus anthracis is the causative agent of anthrax, primarily a disease of herbivorous animals, which can be accidentally transmitted to humans. Three cases of cutaneous human anthrax were recorded in August 2020 in Dolj county, Romania. These case...
Bacillus anthracis (B. anthracis) is the etiological agent of anthrax affecting both humans and animals. Anthrax toxin (AT) plays a major role in pathogenesis. It includes lethal toxin (LT) and edema toxin (ET), which are formed by the combination of...
A licensed anthrax vaccine has been available for pre-exposure prophylaxis in the United States since 1970, and it was approved for use as a post-exposure prophylaxis, in combination with antibiotic treatment, in 2015. A variety of other vaccines are...
The interaction of anthrax toxin or toxin components with B. anthracis spores has been demonstrated. Germinating spores can produce significant amounts of toxin components very soon after the initiation of germination. In this review, we will summari...
Outbreaks of Bacillus anthracis in the US and Europe over the past 10 years have emphasized the health threat this lethal bacteria poses even for developed parts of the world. In contrast to cutaneous anthrax, inhalational disease in the US during th...
15 April 2021
The climate is changing, and such changes are projected to cause global increase in the prevalence and geographic ranges of infectious diseases such as anthrax. There is limited knowledge in the tropics with regards to expected impacts of climate cha...
Anthrax is an acute infectious zoonotic disease caused by Bacillus anthracis that mostly affects grazing livestock and wildlife. Furthermore, B. anthracis is considered one of the most important biological agents of bioterrorism that could also be po...
Anthrax is caused by the gram-positive bacterium Bacillus anthracis. The pathogenesis of this disease is dependent on the presence of two binary toxins, edema toxin (EdTx) and lethal toxin (LeTx). LeTx, the major virulence factor contributing to anth...
We report on a highly significant, positive association between anthrax vaccination and occurrence of Gulf War Illness (GWI) in 111 Gulf War veterans (42 with GWI and 69 controls). GWI was diagnosed in 47.1% of vaccinated veterans but only in 17.2% o...
(1) Background: Cutaneous anthrax is a disease caused by a Gram-positive bacillus, spore-forming Bacillus anthracis (BA). Cutaneous anthrax accounts for 95% of all anthrax cases, with mortality between 10–40% in untreated forms. The most feared...
Developing drugs to treat the toxic effects of lethal toxin (LT) and edema toxin (ET) produced by B. anthracis is of global interest. We utilized a computational approach to score 474 drugs/compounds for their ability to reverse the toxic effects of...
Purpose: This study aims to analyze and characterize anthrax vaccine-related research, key developments, global research trends, and mapping of published scientific research articles during the last three decades (1991–2021). Methods: A bibliom...
Canine oral mucosal melanomas (OMM) are the most common oral malignancy in dogs and few treatments are available. Thus, new treatment modalities are needed for this disease. Bacillus anthracis (anthrax) toxin has been reengineered to target tumor cel...
The bacterium Bacillus anthracis is the causative agent of the zoonotic disease anthrax. While genomics of extant B. anthracis isolates established in-depth phylogenomic relationships, there is scarce information on the historic genomics of the patho...
The repeated occurrence of anthrax in grazing animals should be a reminder of a widespread presence of Bacillus anthracis spores in the environment. Its rapid diagnosis is critical to protect public health. Here, we report a case of anthrax in cattle...
Bacillus anthracis causes anthrax through virulence factors encoded on two plasmids. However, non-B. anthracis organisms within the closely related, environmentally ubiquitous Bacillus cereus group (BCG) may cause an anthrax-like disease in huma...
The genes encoding Anthrax Toxin Receptors (ANTXRs) were originally identified based on expression in endothelial cells suggesting a role in angiogenesis. The focus of this review is to discuss what has been learned about the physiological roles of t...
Anthrax is an acute disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, and is a potential biowarfare/bioterrorist agent. Its pulmonary form, caused by inhalation of the spores, is highly lethal and is mainly related to injury caused by the toxins se...
Anthrax toxins are produced by Bacillus anthracis throughout infection and shape the physiopathogenesis of the disease. They are produced in low quantities but are highly efficient. They have thus been long ignored, but recent biochemical methods hav...
Anthrax vaccine adsorbed (AVA) is a significant line of defense against bioterrorist attack from Bacillus anthracis spores. However, in a subset of individuals, this vaccine may produce a suboptimal quantity of anti-protective antigen (PA), antibodie...
The use of antibiotics is a vital means of treating infections caused by the bacteria Bacillus (B.) anthracis. Importantly, with the potential future use of multidrug-resistant strains of B. anthracis as bioweapons, new antibiotics are needed as alte...
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