Yesterday and Today: The Impact of Research Conducted at Camp Detrick on Botulinum Toxin

Lebeda, Frank J.; Adler, Michaël; Dembek, Zygmunt F.

doi:10.1093/milmed/usx047

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…Military researchers also gave their contributions for this disease. Since 1941, BoNTs have become a military issue when an American Military Attaché in Berne, Switzerland, reported that “German experts and French collaborators in the Koch Foundation laboratories near Paris” were developing “botulinum toxin in an inert carrier for dissemination by air-burst bombs” [ 551 ]. This episode convinced the US Department of Defense to focus on medical countermeasures, including vaccines, to immunize and protect personnel in the laboratories at Camp Detrick against accidental exposure to biological warfare agents [ 552 ].…”

Section: Biological Agents For Bio-warfare/bioterrorism Category A–bmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Historical Review of Military Medical Strategies for Fighting Infectious Diseases: From Battlefields to Global Health

Biselli

Nisini

Lista³

et al. 2022

Biomedicines

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The environmental conditions generated by war and characterized by poverty, undernutrition, stress, difficult access to safe water and food as well as lack of environmental and personal hygiene favor the spread of many infectious diseases. Epidemic typhus, plague, malaria, cholera, typhoid fever, hepatitis, tetanus, and smallpox have nearly constantly accompanied wars, frequently deeply conditioning the outcome of battles/wars more than weapons and military strategy. At the end of the nineteenth century, with the birth of bacteriology, military medical researchers in Germany, the United Kingdom, and France were active in discovering the etiological agents of some diseases and in developing preventive vaccines. Emil von Behring, Ronald Ross and Charles Laveran, who were or served as military physicians, won the first, the second, and the seventh Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering passive anti-diphtheria/tetanus immunotherapy and for identifying mosquito Anopheline as a malaria vector and plasmodium as its etiological agent, respectively. Meanwhile, Major Walter Reed in the United States of America discovered the mosquito vector of yellow fever, thus paving the way for its prevention by vector control. In this work, the military relevance of some vaccine-preventable and non-vaccine-preventable infectious diseases, as well as of biological weapons, and the military contributions to their control will be described. Currently, the civil–military medical collaboration is getting closer and becoming interdependent, from research and development for the prevention of infectious diseases to disasters and emergencies management, as recently demonstrated in Ebola and Zika outbreaks and the COVID-19 pandemic, even with the high biocontainment aeromedical evacuation, in a sort of global health diplomacy.

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Section: Biological Agents For Bio-warfare/bioterrorism Category A–bmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Historical Review of Military Medical Strategies for Fighting Infectious Diseases: From Battlefields to Global Health

Biselli

Nisini

Lista³

et al. 2022

Biomedicines

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show abstract

“…The purification and development of botulinum toxin, the toxin from clostridium botulinum, was eventually dated back to the time of World War II, when it could potentially be used as a biological weapon [ 7 , 8 ]. Carl Lamanna and Richard Duff were the first to extract and crystalize botulinum toxin [ 9 ]. Later in 1946, Edward Shantz and Erik Johnson could purify larger amounts and also further refine the toxin for clinical research [ 10 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Does Botulinum Toxin Inhibit Itch?

Gazerani

2022

Toxins

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Two decades after reports of the anti-pruritic effects of botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs), there is still no approved product for the anti-itch indication of BoNTs, and most clinical case reports still focus on the off-label use of BoNTs for various itchy conditions. Few randomized clinical trials have been conducted with controversial results, and the beneficial effects of BoNTs against itch are mainly based on case studies and case series. These studies are valuable in presenting the potential application of BoNTs in chronic pruritic conditions, but due to the nature of these studies, they are categorized as providing lower levels of evidence or lower grades of recommendation. To obtain approval for the anti-pruritic indication of BoNTs, higher levels of evidence are required, which can be achieved through conducting large-scale and well-designed studies with proper control groups and established careful and reliable primary and secondary outcomes. In addition to clinical evidence, presenting the mechanism-based antipruritic action of BoNTs can potentially strengthen, accelerate, and facilitate the current efforts towards further investments in accelerating the field towards the potential approval of BoNTs for itchy conditions. This review, therefore, aimed to provide the state-of-the-art mechanisms underlying the anti-itch effect of BoNTs from basic studies that resemble various clinical conditions with itch as a hallmark. Evidence of the neuronal, glial, and immune modulatory actions of BoNTs in reducing the transmission of itch are presented, and future potential directions are outlined.

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“…При этом в отношении интоксикаций ботулотоксинами определенные перспективы имеет КВС на основе нетоксичной субъединицы ботулинического токсина в составе наногельной системы с полисахаридным комплексом, модифицированным холестерином и аминогруппами. Препарат при интраназальном применении способствует образованию повышенных титров секреторных IgA и системных IgG, обеспечивая тем самым 100% защиту животных от нейротоксина Clostridium botulinum, введенного внутрибрюшинно или интраназально [20]. Основной платформой КВС в отношении СЭВ являются частицы PLGA, нагруженные инактивированным СЭВ.…”

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Prospects for improving immunoprophylaxis of infectious diseases

Степанов¹,

Myasnikov²,

Apcel

2021

Bulletin of the Russian Military Medical Academy

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This study described the perspective and significance of using complex vaccine systems in improving immunoprophylaxis of major infectious diseases of various etiologies and genesis. Immunobiological drugs traditionally used for this purpose, along with the advantages, have disadvantages, such as increased reactogenicity and development of post-vaccine reactions and complications in some cases. Such adverse effects are serious obstacles to immunoprophylaxis on a mass scale. This circumstance was the reason for the improvement of immunoprophylaxis, and the main focus was the creation of chemical, recombinant, and subunit vaccines. However, compared with traditional drugs, these vaccines have inferior effectiveness, even if they are practically reactogenic and do not lead to the development of post-vaccine reactions and complications. The main approaches to the development of effective and safe methods of immunoprophylaxis are considered based on the development of complex vaccine systems, and the components can be protective antigens, biologically active substances of the corresponding microorganisms, adjuvants applied or embedded in the corresponding biologically active, and safe biotechnological platforms. Among the latter, nanoparticles and microparticles of polylactoglycolic acid, liposomes, lipids, and copolymers are recognized as the most suitable for the construction of complex vaccine systems. This paper highlighted new trends in the development of these methods of immunoprophylaxis and their advantages in comparison with traditionally used immunobiological drugs. Moreover, prospects are characterized and examples of developed vaccine preparations are presented. The mechanisms of action of postvaccination immunity and factors that influence its formation are described.

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Yesterday and Today: The Impact of Research Conducted at Camp Detrick on Botulinum Toxin

Cited by 7 publications

References 87 publications

A Historical Review of Military Medical Strategies for Fighting Infectious Diseases: From Battlefields to Global Health

A Historical Review of Military Medical Strategies for Fighting Infectious Diseases: From Battlefields to Global Health

How Does Botulinum Toxin Inhibit Itch?

Prospects for improving immunoprophylaxis of infectious diseases

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