Research Funding Seeks to Provide More Time for Anthrax Treatment

Researchers at Rensselaer have been awarded a new federal grant to develop experimental compounds that may someday extend the period during which a person exposed to anthrax can be treated successfully. Ravi Kane, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Rensselaer, has been awarded a grant of $500,000 from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to develop inhibitors of the anthrax toxin. The inhibitors will be tested in collaboration with Dr. Jeremy Mogridge at the University of Toronto.

Thomas Griffin

“Combined with standard antibiotic treatment, a toxin inhibitor would enable the successful treatment of anthrax at later stages of the disease and allow many more lives to be saved,” Kane said.
The potentially deadly disease anthrax is caused by a toxin secreted by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis.

Antibiotics can kill the bacteria and, started early enough, offer successful treatment in many cases. Standard antibiotic treatment has no effect on the amount of toxin that builds up in the blood over time, however, making speedy treatment crucial.

“An effective anthrax inhibitor would be able to prevent the toxin from binding to receptors on the human cell, thereby hindering the toxin from doing any damage,” Kane said. Unlike antibiotics, which can kill the bacteria but do not affect the toxin, an inhibitor also would be able to reduce levels of toxin that have been released into the body. Once levels of toxin have been lowered, standard antibiotic treatment also would be administered to kill all remaining bacteria.

Heightened awareness of the ability to deliver anthrax spores through the air, combined with the high mortality rate of the inhaled form of the disease, has led to the use of the spores as a biological weapon. An anthrax vaccine currently is available, but large-scale use is not practical, says Kane. “An anthrax inhibitor also might be able to function as a preventive agent and could be used as an alternative to passive immunotherapy.” The inhibitor agent could be more affordable and shelf-stable, making such a treatment suitable for stockpiling.