Last Updated

09 Jan 2003

Source: Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2002.

Research Yields New Tools To Detect Anthrax Spores

By MARILYN CHASE, Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

New tools to help speed the detection of anthrax outbreaks are emerging from federally funded research projects launched years before spore-laced letters were mailed by a bioterrorist last fall.

In a pair of research papers published in Tuesday's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one group of scientists proposed an early-warning system for anthrax outbreaks by monitoring sales of over-the-counter cough medicine. Another research team devised an anthrax detection system that harnesses tiny viruses to home in on the bacteria's spores.

The first sign of a large-scale outbreak of inhalation anthrax from a bioterror attack might simply be a sudden run on cough and cold remedies, suggesting market surveillance might provide one early detection tool. Although such sales could also indicate a simple rise in natural illness, the model is intended as an early-warning system, not a definitive diagnostic test, said the study's lead author, Stephen Fienberg, professor of statistics and computer sciences at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Ideally, surveillance could be broadened by integrating sales data from drugstore chains with information on school absences and public-health data on doctor visits and hospital visits, and "then you'd have real potential," Dr. Fienberg added.

Early-warning systems are essential because inhalation anthrax is swiftly fatal if not treated promptly. "You've got a three-day window. If you're not on it quickly, you've lost a lot of people," he said.

In a second paper in the journal, California scientists devised a sensitive detection system that "pans" for anthrax spores as miners pan for gold nuggets, by using a panel of phages -- tiny viruses with an appetite for specific bacteria -- as a screen. An environmental sample of suspected anthrax in powder could, in effect, be sifted through a plate of phages. When a specific phage encounters anthrax , the spore sticks to the phage on the plate.

"One sticks and the rest fall through and get washed away," like sand in a miner's pan, said the study's lead author, Kim D. Janda, professor of chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. The model system was developed using nonlethal members of the Bacillus family, but could be adapted for use to identify Bacillus anthracis, the bacteria that causes anthrax . The panning technique theoretically could be used to test powder from a letter, environmental surfaces, or air intake into a building where contamination was suspected, Dr. Janda said.

The phages act like highly sensitive, heat-seeking missiles, detecting as little as a single anthrax spore, even when the spores are concealed in a variety of powdery substances such as starch or baby powder, Dr. Janda said.

In the future, Dr. Janda said, such phages could be used to identify antibodies to anthrax that might be helpful in developing new vaccines or treatments.