title: Inhibition of anthrax toxins with a bispecific monoclonal antibody that cross reacts with edema factor as well as lethal factor of Bacillus anthracis.
abstract: Bacillus anthracis overwhelms its victims by way of two toxins, namely edema toxin and lethal toxin. Lethal toxin is formed by the combination of protective antigen with lethal factor while edema toxin is formed by the combination of Protective Antigen with edema factor. Overlapping regions between edema factor and lethal factor have been reported in past. For the first time, this study reports characterization of a bispecific monoclonal antibody (mAb), H10, which showed high affinity interaction with both edema factor and lethal factor of B. anthracis. H10 mAb not only neutralized the adenylate cyclase activity of edema toxin but it could also neutralize the cytotoxic activity of lethal toxin. Passive immunization with this antibody gave 100% protection to mice from in vivo challenge with lethal toxin and edema toxin. The results of this study suggest future application of this bispecific monoclonal antibody as passive immunization prophylactics in cases of B. anthracis exposure and infection.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering, School of Biotechnology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110067, India.
authors.forename: Parul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kulshreshtha
authors.forename: Rakesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bhatnagar
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000881:Anthrax / Q000188:drug therapy*; D022122:Anthrax Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D018033:Antibodies, Bispecific / Q000276:immunology*; D000915:Antibody Affinity; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000276:immunology*; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000276:immunology*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D003429:Cross Reactions; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data
chemical_list: D022122:Anthrax Vaccines; D018033:Antibodies, Bispecific; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D001427:Bacterial Toxins; C030325:anthrax toxin