Anthrax, an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, is often treatable in its early stages. But once the disease has progressed beyond the “point of no return” after just a few days, patients are almost certainly doomed.
In a new Nature Microbiologystudy, University of Pittsburgh researchers show that a cocktail of growth factors reversed would-be lethal cell damage in mice with anthrax, suggesting that this approach could be adapted for use in patients beyond the brink.
“While only a few people die from anthrax in the United States each year, there is always the concern that the bacterium could be released on a large scale as a bioweapon,” said senior author Shihui Liu, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of medicine at the Pitt School of Medicine and member of the Aging Institute, a joint venture…