Statistical pattern matching facilitates the design of polyvalent inhibitors of anthrax and cholera toxins.

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Published at: www.nature.com

Moshe ArditiOwnerMoshe Arditi, MD, Inc

Anthrax and cholera toxin inhibitors may lead to Novel Therapies

April 28, 2006

Anthrax toxin, is secreted by the anthrax bacterium and is made up of toxic proteins that damage host cells. In 2001 the intentional release of anthrax spores in postal mail in the US has led to increased federal research dollars to design possible new therapeutics and vaccines to prevent or treat these toxins that can be used as biological weapons. Currently we use anthrax exposure with antibiotics, but despite antibiotic use the mortality rate remains 75%. Antibiotics do not alter the detrimental effects of the anthrax toxin. Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY) and the University of Toronto reported recently their discovery of an anthrax toxin inhibitor that can neutralize the toxin. Using the same technique of placing multiple peptides on a liposome, these researchers also created a polyvalent inhibitor of cholera toxin. Therefore, the implication of this novel approach to design anthrax inhibitor (antitoxin) is not only valuable for the treatment of anthrax, but also because the same technique can be use to make better therapies against many other diseases such as cholera. Inhibitors designed in this fashion may one day be used together with standard antibiotic therapy to treat many diseases such as anthrax and cholera and others.