Bower William A, Hendricks Katherine A, Vieira Antonio R, Traxler Rita M, Weiner Zachary, Lynfield Ruth, Hoffmaster Alex
Bacterial Special Pathogens Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA.
Minnesota Department of Health, Saint Paul, MN 55155, USA.
Pathogens. 2022 Jun 16;11(6):690. doi: 10.3390/pathogens11060690.
Anthrax has been feared for its high mortality in animals and humans for centuries. The etiologic agent is considered a potentially devastating bioweapon, and since 1876-when Robert Koch demonstrated that Bacillus anthracis caused anthrax-it has been considered the sole cause of the disease. Anthrax is, however, a toxin-mediated disease. The toxins edema toxin and lethal toxin are formed from protein components encoded for by the pXO1 virulence plasmid present in pathogenic strains. However, other members of the group, to which belongs, have recently been shown to harbor the pXO1 plasmid and produce anthrax toxins. Infection with these group organisms produces a disease clinically similar to anthrax. This suggests that anthrax should be defined by the exotoxins encoded for by the pXO1 plasmid rather than the bacterial species it has historically been associated with, and that the definition of anthrax should be expanded to include disease caused by any member of the group containing the toxin-producing pXO1 plasmid or anthrax toxin genes specifically.
几个世纪以来，炭疽因其在动物和人类中的高死亡率而令人恐惧。病原体被认为是一种潜在的毁灭性生物武器，自1876年罗伯特·科赫证明炭疽杆菌导致炭疽以来，它一直被视为该疾病的唯一病因。然而，炭疽是一种毒素介导的疾病。水肿毒素和致死毒素由致病菌株中存在的pXO1毒力质粒编码的蛋白质成分形成。然而，最近发现该属的其他成员也携带pXO1质粒并产生炭疽毒素。感染这些属的生物体所产生的疾病在临床上与炭疽相似。这表明炭疽应根据pXO1质粒编码的外毒素来定义，而不是根据其历史上与之相关的细菌种类来定义，并且炭疽的定义应扩大到包括由任何含有产生毒素的pXO1质粒或炭疽毒素基因的该属成员引起的疾病。
