Anthrax in one health in Southern and Southeastern Europe - the effect of climate change?

Anthrax is a serious infection caused by Bacillus anthracis. The anthracis spores are highly resistant and can persist in the environment for several decades. Therefore, anthrax is considered a global health threat affecting wildlife, livestock, and the general public. The resistance mechanism is influenced not only by the environment or the ecological niche but also by virulence factors. In the last 10 years the Southern and Southeastern Europe have been confronted with this threat. Recently, there have been 8 human anthrax cases reported in Croatia (2022), and 4 cases in Romania (2023). Moreover, this incident and the COVID situation could be a starting point to encourage researchers to raise the alarm. On the other hand, climate change is causing glaciers to melt and land to thaw, and many wetlands and swampy areas are being drained. It should not be forgotten that epidemiological and epizootic threats significantly affect the country's economic development. The Covid-19 epidemic best illustrates these threats.

Lessons learned from 2001-2021 - from the bioterrorism to the pandemic era.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to analyze available literature on the development of biological warfare and combating the SARS CoV-2 pandemic. Against the background of contemporary threats from biological factors, the strengths and weaknesses of response in the event of a bioterrorist attack during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have been identified. The scope and importance of international cooperation in the fight against the pandemic is assessed. REVIEW METHODS: The more important literature on bioterrorism, biological weapons and the COVID-19 pandemic, both from earlier work and recent publications, was analyzed, emphasizing new threats and adequate defence against them. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE STATE OF KNOWLEDGE: The bio-warfare threat and the current COVID 19 pandemic that has hit mankind on a global scale has clearly shown how dangerous biological agents are and what effects they can cause, negatively affecting every sphere of human activity with catastrophic consequences. Data on examples of bioterrorist attacks carried out and research on the development of biological weapons and methods of combating pandemic COVID-19, were reviewed. New threats related to technological development,including those resulting from genetic manipulation, biosynthesis, and modern means of delivery, are pointed out. Attention has been paid to the implications of controlling the proliferation of biological weapons and the issues of international cooperation in the fight against bioterrorism and the COVD-19 pandemic. SUMMARY: The lesson learned clearly demonstrates the weakness of states in responding to such threats. The risks of uncontrolled scientific advances are still underestimated. Appropriate international control measures must be taken urgently to prepare for new pandemics, bioterrorist attacks, and the possibility of using modern biological weapons.

A Scoping Review on Category A Agents as Bioweapons.

Category A agents are biological pathogens that could pose a threat to health and human safety if used as bioweapons. The exploration and possibility of these threats must be comprehensively reviewed to create a preparedness plan to recognize outbreaks, to educate the public, and to offer vaccinations and/or treatment options, if available. A scoping review using PRISMA guidelines was performed to categorize current information on Category A biological agents as well as understand their potential for future threats. The results used 34 articles and found that while botulin neurotoxins were the most lethal, anthrax posed the most likely threat for use as a bioweapon. Most research was conducted on plague, though it is not the most likely threat. Smallpox is the most likely agent to vaccinate against as there is already a working vaccine that has proven effective and the issue at hand is the need for a larger stockpile. Ultimately, preparedness efforts should include vaccinations and continued research and development of them. Category A agents are a serious public health concern; updated and reformed bioterrorism preparedness plans could greatly minimize panic and mortality.

Public Discussion of Anthrax on Twitter: Using Machine Learning to Identify Relevant Topics and Events.

BACKGROUND: Social media allows researchers to study opinions and reactions to events in real time. One area needing more study is anthrax-related events. A computational framework that utilizes machine learning techniques was created to collect tweets discussing anthrax, further categorize them as relevant by the month of data collection, and detect discussions on anthrax-related events. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to detect discussions on anthrax-related events and to determine the relevance of the tweets and topics of discussion over 12 months of data collection. METHODS: This is an infoveillance study, using tweets in English containing the keyword "Anthrax" and "Bacillus anthracis", collected from September 25, 2017, through August 15, 2018. Machine learning techniques were used to determine what people were tweeting about anthrax. Data over time was plotted to determine whether an event was detected (a 3-fold spike in tweets). A machine learning classifier was created to categorize tweets by relevance to anthrax. Relevant tweets by month were examined using a topic modeling approach to determine the topics of discussion over time and how these events influence that discussion. RESULTS: Over the 12 months of data collection, a total of 204,008 tweets were collected. Logistic regression analysis revealed the best performance for relevance (precision=0.81; recall=0.81; F1-score=0.80). In total, 26 topics were associated with anthrax-related events, tweets that were highly retweeted, natural outbreaks, and news stories. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that tweets related to anthrax can be collected and analyzed over time to determine what people are discussing and to detect key anthrax-related events. Future studies are required to focus only on opinion tweets, use the methodology to study other terrorism events, or to monitor for terrorism threats.

Botulinum Toxin in WW2 German and Allied Armies: Failures and Myths of Weaponization.

Botulinum toxin is nowadays approved as an effective medication for various neurological disorders. The extreme toxicity of this toxin-inducing botulism, a severe lethal muscle-paralyzing illness, has been well known since the seminal works of the end of the 19th century. Because of this toxicity, botulinum toxin was one of the first agents to be considered for use as a biological weapon. The Second World War was a crucial period for the first attempts to weaponize this toxin even if many unknown factors about botulinum toxin still existed at the outbreak of the war. Using documents from the British National Archives and other published sources, we discuss the main points of the attempts to weaponize this toxin in German and Allied armies. During WW2, Allied intelligence services regularly reported a major German threat related to the potential use of botulinum toxin as a biological weapon, especially during the preparation of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion to liberate Europe. All these reports would ultimately prove to be inaccurate: botulinum toxin was not part of the German military arsenal even if some German scientists tried to use the results of the French pre-war military research. Misinformation spread by intelligence services stimulated military research at Porton Down facilities in England and at Camp Detrick in the USA. These studies led to a succession of failures and myths about the weaponization of botulinum toxin. Nevertheless, major progress (purification, toxoid) arose from the military research, providing useful data for the first steps of the therapeutic use of botulinum toxin in the post-war years.

Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response in Poland: Prevention, Surveillance, and Mitigation Planning.

OBJECTIVES: Biological weapons are one of the oldest weapons of mass destruction used by man. Their use has not only determined the outcome of battles, but also influenced the fate of entire civilizations. Although the use of biological weapons agents in a terrorist attack is currently unlikely, all services responsible for the surveillance and removal of epidemiological threats must have clear guidelines and emergency response plans. METHODS: In the face of the numerous threats appearing in the world, it has become necessary to put the main emphasis on modernizing, securing, and maintaining structures in the field of medicine which are prepared for unforeseen crises and situations related to the use of biological agents. RESULTS: This article presents Poland's current preparation to take action in the event of a bioterrorist threat. The study presents both the military aspect and procedures for dealing with contamination. CONCLUSIONS: In Poland, as in other European Union countries fighting terrorism, preparations should be made to defend against biological attacks, improve the flow of information on the European security system, strengthen research centers, train staff, create observation units and vaccination centers, as well as prepare hospitals for the hospitalization of patients-potential victims of bioterrorist attacks.

Bacillus anthracis as a biological warfare agent: infection, diagnosis and countermeasures.

AIM: Bacillus anthracis is a causative agent of zoonotic anthrax disease. In the last years, significant progress in therapy and diagnosis of anthrax was made. Concurrently, knowledge about anthrax progression, molecular pathology and release of anthrax toxin during the disease has improved. This review covers the recent progress in this field. METHODS: In this review, specifications of B. anthracis, anthrax disease, medical and biomedical countermeasures and diagnostic tools were surveyed. The actual literature was summarized and relevance of the microorganism as a biological warfare agent and the ways how to reduce its impact including therapeutic protocols were written and discussed. RESULTS: Currently, the microorganism is considered one of the top biological warfare agents due to lethality, long term stability of spores, easy dissemination and production. The recent research is focused on countermeasures suitable for reduction of consequences by a misuse of the microorganism in form of biological weapon (Tab. 3, Fig. 1, Ref. 101). Text in PDF www.elis.sk.

Current Trends in the Biosensors for Biological Warfare Agents Assay.

Biosensors are analytical devices combining a physical sensor with a part of biological origin providing sensitivity and selectivity toward analyte. Biological warfare agents are infectious microorganisms or toxins with the capability to harm or kill humans. They can be produced and spread by a military or misused by a terrorist group. For example, Bacillus anthracis, Francisella tularensis, Brucella sp., Yersinia pestis, staphylococcal enterotoxin B, botulinum toxin and orthopoxviruses are typical biological warfare agents. Biosensors for biological warfare agents serve as simple but reliable analytical tools for the both field and laboratory assay. There are examples of commercially available biosensors, but research and development of new types continue and their application in praxis can be expected in the future. This review summarizes the facts and role of biosensors in the biological warfare agents' assay, and shows current commercially available devices and trends in research of the news. Survey of actual literature is provided.

Perspective on Improving Environmental Monitoring of Biothreats.

For more than a decade, the United States has performed environmental monitoring by collecting and analyzing air samples for a handful of biological threat agents (BTAs) in order to detect a possible biological attack. This effort has faced numerous technical challenges including timeliness, sampling efficiency, sensitivity, specificity, and robustness. The cost of city-wide environmental monitoring using conventional technology has also been a challenge. A large group of scientists with expertise in bioterrorism defense met to assess the objectives and current efficacy of environmental monitoring and to identify operational and technological changes that could enhance its efficacy and cost-effectiveness, thus enhancing its value. The highest priority operational change that was identified was to abandon the current concept of city-wide environmental monitoring because the operational costs were too high and its value was compromised by low detection sensitivity and other environmental factors. Instead, it was suggested that the focus should primarily be on indoor monitoring and secondarily on special-event monitoring because objectives are tractable and these operational settings are aligned with likelihood and risk assessments. The highest priority technological change identified was the development of a reagent-less, real-time sensor that can identify a potential airborne release and trigger secondary tests of greater sensitivity and specificity for occasional samples of interest. This technological change could be transformative with the potential to greatly reduce operational costs and thereby create the opportunity to expand the scope and effectiveness of environmental monitoring.

Distinguishing Respiratory Features of Category A/B Potential Bioterrorism Agents from Community-Acquired Pneumonia.

Differentiating between illness caused by community-acquired respiratory pathogens versus infection by biothreat agents is a challenge. This review highlights respiratory and clinical features of category A and B potential biothreat agents that have respiratory features as their primary presenting signs and symptoms. Recent world events make such a reminder that the possibility of rare diseases and unlikely events can occur timely for clinicians, policymakers, and public health authorities. Despite some distinguishing features, nothing can replace good clinical acumen and a strong index of suspicion in the diagnosis of uncommon infectious diseases.

Identification of potential drug targets by subtractive genome analysis of Bacillus anthracis A0248: An in silico approach.

BACKGROUND: Bacillus anthracis is a gram positive, spore forming, rod shaped bacteria which is the etiologic agent of anthrax - cutaneous, pulmonary and gastrointestinal. A recent outbreak of anthrax in a tropical region uncovered natural and in vitro resistance against penicillin, ciprofloxacin, quinolone due to over exposure of the pathogen to these antibiotics. This fact combined with the ongoing threat of using B. anthracis as a biological weapon proves that the identification of new therapeutic targets is urgently needed. METHODS: In this computational approach various databases and online based servers were used to detect essential proteins of B. anthracis A0248. Protein sequences of B. anthracis A0248 strain were retrieved from the NCBI database which was then run in CD-hit suite for clustering. NCBI BlastP against the human proteome and similarity search against DEG were done to find out essential human non-homologous proteins. Proteins involved in unique pathways were analyzed using KEGG genome database and PSORTb, CELLO v.2.5, ngLOC - these three tools were used to deduce putative cell surface proteins. RESULTS: Successive analysis revealed 116 proteins to be essential human non-homologs among which 17 were involved in unique metabolic pathways and 28 were predicted as membrane associated proteins. Both types of proteins can be exploited as they are unlikely to have homologous counterparts in the human host. CONCLUSION: Being human non-homologous, these proteins can be targeted for potential therapeutic drug development in future. Targets on unique metabolic and membrane-bound proteins can block cell wall synthesis, bacterial replication and signal transduction respectively.

Bacteriophages: an underestimated role in human and animal health?

Metagenomic approaches applied to viruses have highlighted their prevalence in almost all microbial ecosystems investigated. In all ecosystems, notably those associated with humans or animals, the viral fraction is dominated by bacteriophages. Whether they contribute to dysbiosis, i.e., the departure from microbiota composition in symbiosis at equilibrium and entry into a state favoring human or animal disease is unknown at present. This review summarizes what has been learnt on phages associated with human and animal microbiota, and focuses on examples illustrating the several ways by which phages may contribute to a shift to pathogenesis, either by modifying population equilibrium, by horizontal transfer, or by modulating immunity.

Pediatric anthrax clinical management.

Anthrax is a zoonotic disease caused by Bacillus anthracis, which has multiple routes of infection in humans, manifesting in different initial presentations of disease. Because B anthracis has the potential to be used as a biological weapon and can rapidly progress to systemic anthrax with high mortality in those who are exposed and untreated, clinical guidance that can be quickly implemented must be in place before any intentional release of the agent. This document provides clinical guidance for the prophylaxis and treatment of neonates, infants, children, adolescents, and young adults up to the age of 21 (referred to as "children") in the event of a deliberate B anthracis release and offers guidance in areas where the unique characteristics of children dictate a different clinical recommendation from adults.

Novel vaccination approaches against equine alphavirus encephalitides.

The current production of inactivated vaccines for the prevention of equine alphavirus encephalitides caused by Eastern, Western and Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis viruses (EEEV, WEEV, VEEV) involves the manipulation of large quantities of infectious viral particles under biosafety level 3 containment laboratories with the potential risk of transmission to the operators. Moreover, these vaccines are not capable of inducing a long-lasting immunity. Modified live vaccines, which were also attempted, maintain residual virulence and neurotropism, causing disease in both horses and humans. Therefore, the production of an efficacious second generation vaccine which could be used in the prevention of alphavirus infection without the need to manipulate infectious viral particles under high biocontainment conditions could be of great benefit for the worldwide horse industry. Furthermore, equine alphaviruses are considered as biological threat agents. Subunit, chimeric, gene-deleted live mutants, DNA and adenovirus-vectored alphavirus vaccines have been evaluated; such approaches are reviewed in this work. Climate changes, together with modifications in bird and vector ecology, are leading to the arise of emerging pathogens in new geographical locations, and these zoonotic New World arboviruses are gaining concern. Novel vaccine development does show a promising future for prevention of these infections in both horses and humans.

Ribosome-inactivating proteins: potent poisons and molecular tools.

Ribosome-inactivating proteins (RIPs) were first isolated over a century ago and have been shown to be catalytic toxins that irreversibly inactivate protein synthesis. Elucidation of atomic structures and molecular mechanism has revealed these proteins to be a diverse group subdivided into two classes. RIPs have been shown to exhibit RNA N-glycosidase activity and depurinate the 28S rRNA of the eukaryotic 60S ribosomal subunit. In this review, we compare archetypal RIP family members with other potent toxins that abolish protein synthesis: the fungal ribotoxins which directly cleave the 28S rRNA and the newly discovered Burkholderia lethal factor 1 (BLF1). BLF1 presents additional challenges to the current classification system since, like the ribotoxins, it does not possess RNA N-glycosidase activity but does irreversibly inactivate ribosomes. We further discuss whether the RIP classification should be broadened to include toxins achieving irreversible ribosome inactivation with similar turnovers to RIPs, but through different enzymatic mechanisms.

Biowarfare as a biopolitical icon.

Nuclear warfare threat has been one of the main driver for cultural, political, economical and social changes in the late twentieth century, biological warfare threat is about to take it over. However, while nuclear warfare was a concrete possibility, biological warfare is just an elusive risk. This paper will explore some reasons for this apparent inconsistency by discussing biowarfare from a symbolic point of view, looking for its inner meanings and philosophical implications.

La menace de guerre atomique a été l'un des moteurs principaux des changements culturels, politiques, économiques et sociaux dans la deuxième moitié du XX e siècle, la menace de guerre biologique est en passe de reprendre ce rôle. Toutefois, tandis que la guerre nucléaire était une possibilité concrète, la guerre biologique est un risque peu tangible. Le présent article explore les raisons de la contradiction apparente qui nous fait considérer la guerre biologique d'un point de vue symbolique et rechercher ses significations intérieures et ses implications philosophiques.

A BRIEF INQUIRY INTO HIGHTECH WEAPON INJURIES / 解放军医学杂志

Solving the problem of weapon injuries is of primary importance in military medical research. This article aims at presenting an inquiry into hightech weapon injuries in terms of the following: (1)classify hightech weapons into special, hightech conventional and new concept weapons, and expound their characteristics; (2)demonstrate from different angles the pressing necessity to step up researches on special (nuclear, chemical and biological) weapons; (3)discuss the types and injurious effects (high speed projectiles, war heads with numerous shrapnels and cluster bomb, multiple killing factors and high casualty inflicting power) of the everlastingly emerging hightech conventional weapons, and multiple injuries, and combined injuries produced thereby; (4)probe into new concept weapons, mainly the beamed (laser, microwave and infrasound) and non lethal weapon injuries; (5)bring up the question of confrontation of hightech weapons′ in the space in the future; (6)explore the tactics in four levels to confront hightech weapons, and research on medical protection against hightech weapon injuries in terms of basic sciences, medical logistics, and medical equipments.