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September 13, 2002
U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Hope of Vaccine to Guard Against Bioterrorist Toxin"
Financial Times (www.ft.com) (09/13/02) P. 4; Harvey, Fiona
In this week's "New Scientist," researchers from the University of Texas detailed their development of a new vaccine against a particularly lethal toxin called ricin, only just discovered in Afghanistan. Ricin causes flu-like symptoms and can kill within a matter of a few days, say the scientists, and suspicions by UN officials that Saddam Hussein may be stockpiling the toxin have bumped it to the top of bioterrorism watch list. Ricin occurs naturally in castor beans and is composed of a "B chain" element that binds to cells, and an "A chain" that enters the captured cell and destroys the protein therein. It is simple and inexpensive to produce and since it is in powder form, it can easily be made into an aerosol. Only between one microgram and 10 micrograms per kilogram of body weight can kill a person. U of T researchers have genetically altered the A component to disable it from destroying cell protein and have created a vaccine that has so far, been successful in immunizing mice even against 10 times the amount of ricin toxin that killed unvaccinated mice.
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