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Did You Know?
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin
Medical School, McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research and their
collaborators at Harvard Medical School have discovered a major advance in
understanding how anthrax toxin kills host cells, leading quickly to
death. They have found the receptor, a docking structure, that anthrax
toxin binds to in order to enter cells. The structure consists of a single
protein the researchers call anthrax toxin receptor (ATR). Once the
anthrax bacterium enters its host, it secretes a toxin consisting of three
components, two of which wreak havoc inside cells, edema factor (EF) and
lethal factor (LF). |
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The
third component, protective antigen binds to ATR and acts like a doorway
for EF and LF to enter the cell. By genetically engineering a portion of
ATR, the scientists have also produced a form that can block the toxin
from entering cells, a feat that may have crucial implications for
approaches aimed at treating anthrax infection. The Wisconsin Alumni
Research Foundation and Harvard Medical School have filed a joint patent
on the anthrax toxin receptor.
News @ UW-Madison, Research,
Anthrax Breakthrough Reported, 10/23/01
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