He addresses ideologies that characterize terrorist organizations, their motives and goals, and their use of biocrime; biohacking and the origin and development of the DIYbio movement, in which people conduct biological or bioengineering experiments in home and other settings; specific pathogens and toxins, such as anthrax, botulism, plague, tularemia, Q fever, salmonellosis, Ebola, Marburg Virus Diseases, smallpox, and their dissemination; and specific cases: physician Debora Green and her efforts to use a lethal
plant toxin as a weapon, bioterrorism attacks orchestrated by extremist religious sects in the US and Japan, and the anthrax attack after 9/11.
Immunotoxins usually contain a bacterial or
plant toxin payload to induce cell killing, and a targeting domain with an antibody or its fragment to achieve specific binding capacity.
Oxidative stress has already been shown to significantly contribute to
plant toxin cytotoxicity.
For years, scientists have known of some mutations in upper urinary tract cancer patients exposed to the
plant toxin. But the genome-wide spectrum of mutations associated with aristolochic acid exposure remained largely unknown.
Ricin is a potent
plant toxin found in the seeds of the castor
In this extension of the 1993 edition, organic chemists Colegate (
Plant Toxin Research Group, Australian Animal Health Laboratory, Victoria) and Molyneux (Western Regional Research Center, Albany, California) introduce 21 chapters in which multi- disciplinary international scientists (mostly new contributors) review applications of recent techniques for the detection, isolation, and structural determination of biologically-active natural products which potentially offer new medicines for treating disease.
Inventories of plant and animal food items are being compiled to determine if a naturally occurring
plant toxin or contaminated food/water is the source of the disease.
A researcher from Purdue University has discovered that a natural
plant toxin can stop invading fungi by turning a fungus' protein production system against itself.
Other than Rashneeshee and the Aum Shinrikyo, the only other confirmed attempt by a terrorist group to use bioagents involved the Mau Mau, who used a
plant toxin to poison cattle.
A team from A*STAR's Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology has discovered the secret recipe for 'antidotes' that could neutralize the deadly
plant toxin Ricin - widely feared for its bioterrorism potential - as well as the Pseudomonas exotoxin responsible for the tens of thousands of hospital-acquired infections in immune-compromised patients around the world.
In fact, it all sounds like choosing the latest lippy, that someone might just forget to mention that Botox is actually a derivative of botulinum - a deadly
plant toxin which is even used in biological warfare.
Detective work that unmasked a
plant toxin poisonous to beef cattle has helped medical science in its search for cancer-fighting weapons.
