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Wednesday, 18 July 2004 Anthrax Toxin - Working Towards an Antidote Thiang Yian Wong, Robert Schwarzenbacher and Robert C. Liddington The Burnham Institute, 10901 North Torrey Pines Rd, La Jolla, CA (A) The hydrophobic pocket of LF (B) Overall structure of LF Anthrax makes a deadly cocktail of three toxin proteins that flood the bloodstream, leading to rapid death if the infection is not diagnosed and treated in its early stages. Even antibiotic treatments can fail when the Anthrax bacterium, Bacillus anthracis, has already produced lethal levels of toxins. The poisonous protein called Lethal Factor (LF) rapidly blocks signals to recruit immune cells to fight the infection, by destroying the immune system signal protein. LF is a metalloprotease. The current research concluded that the most effective inhibitors blocked the active center via hydrophobic interactions and also deprived LF of zinc.