Brenneman, Karen E., Doganay, Mehmet, Akmal, Arya, Goldman, Stanley, Galloway, Darrell R., Mateczun, Alfred J., Cross, Alan S. and Baillie, Les ![]() |
Abstract
Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax, produces a tripartite toxin composed of two enzymatically active subunits, lethal factor (LF) and edema factor (EF), which, when associated with a cell-binding component, protective antigen (PA), form lethal toxin and edema toxin, respectively. In this preliminary study, we characterized the toxin-specific antibody responses observed in 17 individuals infected with cutaneous anthrax. The majority of the toxin-specific antibody responses observed following infection were directed against LF, with immunoglobulin G (IgG) detected as early as 4 days after the onset of symptoms in contrast to the later and lower EF- and PA-specific IgG responses. Unlike the case with infection, the predominant toxin-specific antibody response of those immunized with the US anthrax vaccine absorbed and UK anthrax vaccine precipitated licensed anthrax vaccines was directed against PA. We observed that the LF-specific human antibodies were, like anti-PA antibodies, able to neutralize toxin activity, suggesting the possibility that they may contribute to protection. We conclude that an antibody response to LF might be a more sensitive diagnostic marker of anthrax than to PA. The ability of human LF-specific antibodies to neutralize toxin activity supports the possible inclusion of LF in future anthrax vaccines.
Item Type: | Article |
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Date Type: | Publication |
Status: | Published |
Schools: | Pharmacy |
Subjects: | Q Science > QR Microbiology > QR355 Virology R Medicine > RS Pharmacy and materia medica |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | anthrax; lethal factor; edema factor; protective antigen |
Publisher: | Wiley-Blackwell |
ISSN: | 0928-8244 |
Last Modified: | 21 Oct 2022 09:31 |
URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/36738 |
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