Drugs that target the toxic proteins would be a big boost for treatment against anthrax since antibiotics are not always an effective antidote. Even though most B. anthracis strains are susceptible to antibiotics, there is a certain point during the course of infection, after which so much toxic protein has accumulated, that no amount of antibiotic does any good. But if an arsenal of antitoxins existed that could be administered at this later stage of infection, such drugs could be used to "cure those unfortunate patients," according to Wei-Jen Tang, a professor at the University of Chicago's Ben-May Institute for Cancer Research and coauthor on the recent Nature paper.1 Tang says he suspects that antitoxins could have saved the lives recently lost from inhalation anthrax.
EF is one of several adenylyl cyclases, molecules that convert ATP into cyclic AMP (cAMP). Cyclic AMP exists in almost every organism outside of plants, ...
