Thermostable ricin vaccine protects rhesus macaques against aerosolized ricin: Epitope-specific neutralizing antibodies correlate with protection.

ABSTRACT: Ricin toxin (RT) is the second most lethal toxin known; it has been designated by the CDC as a select agent. RT is made by the castor bean plant; an estimated 50,000 tons of RT are produced annually as a by-product of castor oil. RT has two subunits, a ribotoxic A chain (RTA) and galactose-binding B chain (RTB). RT binds to all mammalian cells and once internalized, a single RTA catalytically inactivates all of the ribosomes in a cell. Administered as an aerosol, RT causes rapid lung damage and fibrosis followed by death. There are no Food and Drug Administration-approved vaccines and treatments are only effective in the first few hours after exposure. We have developed a recombinant RTA vaccine that has two mutations V76M/Y80A (RiVax). The protein is expressed in Escherichia coli and is n

SUBMITTER: Roy CJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4378443 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature