[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Skip to Main Content

Latest News

Advertisement
Aldrich Webinar
Advertise Here
October 11, 2011

Spotting Deadly Spores

Pathogens: Technique based on mass spectrometry can find anthrax in milk and soil

Katharine Sanderson

  • Print this article
  • Email the editor

Latest News



October 28, 2011

Speedy Homemade-Explosive Detector

Forensic Chemistry: A new method could increase the number of explosives detected by airport screeners.

Solar Panel Makers Cry Foul

Trade: U.S. companies complain of market dumping by China.

Novartis To Cut 2,000 Jobs

Layoffs follow similar moves by Amgen, AstraZeneca.

Nations Break Impasse On Waste

Environment: Ban to halt export of hazardous waste to developing world.

New Leader For Lawrence Livermore

Penrose (Parney) Albright will direct DOE national lab.

Hair Reveals Source Of People's Exposure To Mercury

Toxic Exposure: Mercury isotopes in human hair illuminate dietary and industrial sources.

Why The Long Fat?

Cancer Biochemistry: Mass spectrometry follows the metabolism of very long fatty acids in cancer cells.

Text Size A A

FDA
Infectious Spores Just 7,000 of these Bacillus anthracis spores in a milliliter of milk can infect a person with anthrax.

A new analytical technique could improve scientists' ability to detect anthrax spores in environmental samples, such as soil or milk (Anal. Chem., DOI: 10.1021/ac2020992).

When looking for the microbe that causes anthrax, Bacillus anthracis, researchers have to worry about two analytical problems, says François Becher of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission: Their technique must detect tiny quantities because the minimum infectious dose for inhalation can be as little as 1,000 spores; The method must also pick out the correct Bacillus strain. Other Bacillus family members, like B. cereus, are genetically similar to anthrax and can appear to be the more dangerous bacterium.

In the method designed by Becher and his colleagues, the researchers use magnetic beads coated with anthrax-specific antibodies to pull out anthrax spores from a contaminated sample. They then treat the beads with acid to extract the bound spores. Finally, the scientists digest the spores' proteins with proteases to produce small protein fragments for analysis by a sensitive mass spectrometry technique called multiple reaction monitoring. B. anthracis has a unique protein signature that the researchers can detect.

Becher's team tested the method on samples of milk and soil spiked with anthrax spores. In a milliliter of milk or 10 mg of soil, the researchers could pick out as little as 7,000 spores, both of which correspond to the minimal infectious dose for ingestion.

The technique could complement current field-based measurements, such as colorimetric assays, Becher says, to verify cases of anthrax poisoning.

Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © 2011 American Chemical Society
  • Print this article
  • Email the editor
  • Save To del.icio.us
  • Digg This Story
  • Save to Reddit
  • Stumble it

Services & Tools

ACS Resources

ACS is the leading employment source for recruiting scientific professionals. ACS Careers and C&EN Classifieds provide employers direct access to scientific talent both in print and online. Jobseekers | Employers

» Join ACS

Join more than 161,000 professionals in the chemical sciences world-wide, as a member of the American Chemical Society.
» Join Now!