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designed a molecule that's a reasonably effective inhibitor of anthrax toxin in rats. They screened a peptide library to find a peptide that binds weakly to the cell-binding portion of the anthrax toxin, thereby preventing the toxin from delivering its lethal portion into cells. Reasoning that it's sometimes possible to increase the effectiveness of a weakly binding ligand by presenting a lot of it, the researchers attached many copies of their nonnatural peptide to a flexible polymeric backbone. The resulting molecule could protect rats against 10 times the usual lethal dose of anthrax toxin.
The work is "an important and encouraging step" toward a treatment that blocks the effects of the toxin itself. But much more work will be needed, including experiments in other model systems, to see whether this approach will lead to an effective drug.
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