Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

Human antibodies from immunized donors are protective against anthrax toxin in vivo

Nature Biotechnology volume 21, pages 1305–1306 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

A panel of Fabs that neutralize anthrax toxin in vitro was selected from libraries generated from human donors vaccinated against anthrax. At least two of these antibodies protect rats from anthrax intoxication in vivo. Fabs 83K7C and 63L1D bind with subnanomolar affinity to protective antigen (PA) 63, and Fab 63L1D neutralizes toxin substoichiometrically, inhibits lethal factor (LF) interaction with PA63 and binds to a conformational epitope formed by PA63.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: In vitro neutralization and ELISA.
Figure 2: In vivo dosage studies of Fabs.

Similar content being viewed by others

Accession codes

Accessions

GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ

References

  1. Klimpel, K.R., Molloy, S.S., Thomas, G. & Leppla, S.H. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89, 10277–10281 (1992).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Milne, J.C., Furlong, D., Hanna, P.C., Wall, J.S. & Collier, R.J. J. Biol. Chem. 269, 20607–20612 (1994).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Mogridge, J., Cunningham, K. & Collier, R.J. Biochemistry 41, 1079–1082 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Little, S.F., Leppla, S.H. & Cora, E. Infect. Immun. 56, 1807–1813 (1988).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Little, S.F., Leppla, S.H. & Friedlander, A.M. Infect. Immun. 58, 1606–1613 (1990).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Little, S.F., Ivins, B.E., Fellows, P.F. & Friedlander, A.M. Infect. Immun. 65, 5171–5175 (1997).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Myszka, D.G. & Morton, T.A. Trends. Biochem. Sci. 23, 149–150 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Our special thanks go to the military personnel who voluntarily donated blood and bone marrow to this effort. We thank Arthur Friedlander for his gift of PA83 antigen, Janette Delgadillo for expert assistance, and David Myszka for timely Biacore analyses. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policies or positions of the Departments of the Army, Navy, Defense or the US government.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alexion Antibody Technologies, Inc., 3985 Sorrento Valley Blvd., San Diego, 92121, California, USA

    Martha A Wild, Hong Xin, Toshiaki Maruyama, Mary Jean Nolan, Peter M Calveley & Katherine S Bowdish

  2. Naval Medical Center, 34800 Bob Wilson Drive, San Diego, 92134, California, USA

    John D Malone & Mark R Wallace

Authors
  1. Martha A Wild
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hong Xin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Toshiaki Maruyama
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Mary Jean Nolan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Peter M Calveley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. John D Malone
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Mark R Wallace
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Katherine S Bowdish
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katherine S Bowdish.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wild, M., Xin, H., Maruyama, T. et al. Human antibodies from immunized donors are protective against anthrax toxin in vivo. Nat Biotechnol 21, 1305–1306 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt891

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt891

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing