Kontakt 2005, 7(1-2):133-137 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2005.026

AnthraxBiomedicine

Veronika Boštíková¹, Jiří Patočka^1,2,*

¹ Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích, Zdravotně sociální fakulta

² Univerzita obrany v Hradci Králové, Fakulta vojenského zdravotnictví

Anthrax is a fatal bacterial infection, which occurs when endospores of the Bacillus anthracis penetrate into the body through one of the following three ways: by inspiration, through the skin or on ingestion. Prior to anthrax terrorist attacks in the USA in 2001, there was an only slight interest in anthrax as a dangerous human pathogen. Anthrax was considered as a veterinary problem of a rather low importance. This unconcerned attitude to anthrax was changed after terrorist actions in 2001. The number of victims was relatively low, however, in spite of this, the attacks enhanced the fear of possible large-area aerosol attack, which could be implemented by terrorists. That is why anesthesiologists and physicians involved in crisis management should have detailed knowledge of the diagnosis treatment, and prevention of anthrax. In the course of several recent years, an enormous progress was achieved in our understanding of molecular mechanisms of anthrax toxin effects. The structure of all its there components - lethal factor (LF), edema factor (EF) and protective antigen (PA) - was identified, which holds not only for the structure of their monomers but also for heptameric forms of PA. The way of the toxin endocytosis was also determined and the mechanism of the EF an LF enzymatic effect was elucidated.

Keywords: Bacillus anthracis; anthrax; anthrax toxin; mechanism of action; terrorism

Published: June 29, 2005  Show citation