Word: anthrax
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Once those tests prove successful, the private sector will become involved in creating a drug, and Cantley’s research partners at Fort Dietrich military research base in Maryland will take over testing on primates. A drug to combat anthrax toxin cannot be tested on humans because of the ethical and legal dilemmas of exposing humans to a potentially deadly disease...
Cantley said that under normal circumstances, the development of an FDA-approved drug following the identification of key molecules would take approximately 10 years. But the process might be speeded somewhat in this case, he said, because of the U.S. military’s fear that inhalation anthrax, the most devastating form of the disease, might be used in a biological attack against major cities...
Pharmaceutical companies would not ordinarily be interested in pursuing a drug to combat anthrax toxin because of the low likelihood that an average person would be exposed to anthrax, Cantley said. But because of the prospect of obtaining lucrative government contracts, private companies have already expressed interest in creating such a drug, he added...
...Because of drugs to treat AIDS, the idea that you can give humans a designed protease inhibitor that humans can tolerate is encouraging,” he said. “This is especially true with anthrax because an anthrax patient might need treatment for only one or two days and could therefore tolerate greater levels of side effects than could an AIDS patient, who would need to tolerate treatment for years...
...study also yields hope because the potential protease inhibitors identified have a high degree of what Cantley called “bioavailability,” or effectiveness in reaching target sites. The molecules that stopped the spread of anthrax toxin in the clinical study are between 0.5 and 5 micrometers in size—small enough to be able to permeate a human cell membrane...