'Glow test' for anthrax could speed up bioterror response

Researchers at the University of Missouri in the US have proved a "glow test" can detect the presence of deadly anthrax bacteria in hours instead of the usual days, promising to significantly cut the time it takes to respond to a potential bioterrorism attack.

Anthrax is not strictly a bacterium, but the disease is caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, which produces two deadly toxins - lethal toxin and edema toxin.

Recent anthrax research on mice suggests that death is caused primarily by lethal toxin targeting heart cells and muscle cells surrounding blood vessels, and edema toxin targeting liver cells.

Although anthrax is a treatable disease, chances of survival are greatly improved if diagnosis is quick and followed by the right therapy.

Shortly after the 9/11 terror attack in the US in 2001, news outlets and government offices received mailed letters containing anthrax spores that killed 5 people and infected another 17. The ensuing clean up and decontamination cost over $3 million.

Now, first responders have tests to screen for dangerous materials in mailed items. In 2001, no such systems were in place. Yet even today, the test for anthrax agents takes up to 48 hours to return a result.

But the new test being developed at the University of Missouri (MU) together with the private company Guild BioSciences of Charleston, SC, might be about to dramatically change that by identifying the presence of anthrax-causing bacteria within hours.

New test takes only 5 hours to detect anthrax bacteria

George Stewart, professor and medical bacteriologist at MU's Bond Life Sciences Center, explains:

"Normally to identify whether an organism is present, you have to extract the material, culture it, and then pick colonies to examine that might turn out to be anthrax bacteria.

Then you conduct chemical testing which takes some time - a minimum of 24 to 48 hours. Using this newly-identified method, we can reduce that time to about five hours."

The new method uses a bacteriophage - literally "bacteria eater" - a type of virus that invades and kills its bacterial host.

By genetically modifying such phages, scientists can exploit their ability to enter bacteria and do various things, such as send them instructions to trigger cell suicide.