IF THE US falls victim to more anthrax attacks, a new technique could help prevent the backlog that delayed health labs鈥� response last time.
In the midst of the panic last year, an understandably paranoid public was sending every suspect white powder for testing. The US Department of 午夜福利1000集合 lab in Miami was dealing with 100 samples a day at the peak of the crisis. 鈥淲e were actually working 24 hours at one stage,鈥� says Andrew Cannons of the Center for Biological Defense at the University of South Florida. 鈥淎nd performing molecular biology while wearing a suit and respirator is no fun.鈥�
The Miami lab is one of only three Bio-Safety Level 3 labs in Florida. Because there are so few of these specialist facilities for dealing with samples that may contain dangerous pathogens, they cause a bottleneck in the testing system. And the standard test for anthrax involves culturing a sample in an incubator for up to 48 hours.
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Now Cannons and his team have developed a technique for making anthrax spores safe, so that they can be transferred to a lower-level lab. The spores are first germinated with a brief heat shock, then killed by heating at high pressure. Finally, the researchers bombard them with ultrasound to crack open the tough spore wall and release the DNA inside. The whole process takes 2 or 3 hours, and quick standard tests for anthrax DNA can then be performed by lower-level labs, the meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Salt Lake City heard last week.
Going straight to DNA testing will give you early warning of positive results, says Segaram Pillai, who heads the Department of 午夜福利1000集合鈥檚 BSL-3 lab in Jacksonville, Florida. But you will still have to confirm any positive results by growing the bug, he says. And before the procedure becomes standard for any future emergency, it will have to be approved by the Department of 午夜福利1000集合 and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.