Novel anthrax treatments explored

R. John Collier, Presley Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School, has been working on anthrax toxin for 15 years. He started his research because he found the workings of the anthrax bacterium interesting from a biological point of view. The events of the fall of 2001, when anthrax-laced letters killed several people in the United States and scared millions more, suddenly made his work of vital importance to the world. Working with several different research teams, Collier and colleagues have made several discoveries that could lead to new anti-anthrax treatments. The most interesting discovery involves the way that anthrax attacks healthy cells. The bacterium releases separate proteins that assemble themselves into a "molecular syringe" that binds to the surface of a healthy cell and then pokes a hole in it. Substituting a piece of mutant protein into the "syringe" effectively disrupts the toxin-delivery system. The mutant-protein approach has the possibility of serving as both a vaccine and a therapeutic agent for anyone exposed to anthrax.