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The article presents author Thomas Powell's opinion of biological warfare (BW) while also mentioning the research conducted by his father John W. Powell regarding the subject. The article further discusses the use of biological warfare during the Korean War by the U.S. against the armies of North Korea in March 1952.

The following paper examines a time-efficient method for detecting biological warfare agents (BWAs). The method is based on a system of a Love-wave immunosensor combined with a microfluidic chip which detects BWA samples in a dynamic mode. In this way a continuous flow-through of the sample is created, promoting the reaction between antigen and antibody and allowing a fast detection of the BWAs. In order to prove this method, static and dynamic modes have been simulated and different concentrations of BWA simulants have been tested with two immunoreactions: phage M13 has been detected using the mouse monoclonal antibody anti-M13 (AM13), and the rabbit immunoglobulin (Rabbit IgG) has been detected using the polyclonal antibody goat anti-rabbit (GAR). Finally, different concentrations of each BWA simulants have been detected with a fast response time and a desirable level of discrimination among them has been achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioterrorism literally means using microorganisms or infected samples to cause terror and panic in populations. Bioterrorism had already started 14 centuries before Christ, when the Hittites sent infected rams to their enemies. However, apart from some rare well-documented events, it is often very difficult for historians and microbiologists to differentiate natural epidemics from alleged biological attacks, because: (i) little information is available for times before the advent of modern microbiology; (ii) truth may be manipulated for political reasons, especially for a hot topic such as a biological attack; and (iii) the passage of time may also have distorted the reality of the past. Nevertheless, we have tried to provide to clinical microbiologists an overview of some likely biological warfare that occurred before the 18th century and that included the intentional spread of epidemic diseases such as tularaemia, plague, malaria, smallpox, yellow fever, and leprosy. We also summarize the main events that occurred during the modern microbiology era, from World War I to the recent 'anthrax letters' that followed the World Trade Center attack of September 2001. Again, the political polemic surrounding the use of infectious agents as a weapon may distort the truth. This is nicely exemplified by the Sverdlovsk accident, which was initially attributed by the authorities to a natural foodborne outbreak, and was officially recognized as having a military cause only 13 years later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Specialists were not considered by Himmler as suitable leaders of this institute. [•] Karl v. Frisch – unbeknownst to him – was one of the candidates. [•] Protocols of mosquito experiments show offensive biological warfare character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological warfare and bioterrorism is an unpleasant fact of 21st century life. Highly infectious and profoundly virulent diseases may be caused in combat personnel or in civilian populations by the appropriate dissemination of viruses, bacteria, spores, fungi, or toxins. Dissemination may be airborne, waterborne, or by contamination of food or surfaces. Countermeasures may be directed toward destroying or neutralizing the agents outside the body before infection has taken place, by destroying the agents once they have entered the body before the disease has fully developed, or by immunizing susceptible populations against the effects. A range of light-based technologies may have a role to play in biodefense countermeasures. Germicidal UV (UVC) is exceptionally active in destroying a wide range of viruses and microbial cells, and recent data suggests that UVC has high selectivity over host mammalian cells and tissues. Two UVA mediated approaches may also have roles to play; one where UVA is combined with titanium dioxide nanoparticles in a process called photocatalysis, and a second where UVA is combined with psoralens (PUVA) to produce "killed but metabolically active" microbial cells that may be particularly suitable for vaccines. Many microbial cells are surprisingly sensitive to blue light alone, and blue light can effectively destroy bacteria, fungi, and Bacillus spores and can treat wound infections. The combination of photosensitizing dyes such as porphyrins or phenothiaziniums and red light is called photodynamic therapy (PDT) or photoinactivation, and this approach cannot only kill bacteria, spores, and fungi, but also inactivate viruses and toxins. Many reports have highlighted the ability of PDT to treat infections and stimulate the host immune system. Finally pulsed (femtosecond) high power lasers have been used to inactivate pathogens with some degree of selectivity. We have pointed to some of the ways light-based technology may be used to defeat biological warfare in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for a rapid detection and characterization of biowarfare (BW) agents cannot be over emphasized. With diverse array of potential BW pathogen available presently, rapid identification of the pathogen is crucial, so that specific therapy and control measures can be initiated. We have developed a multiplex polymerase chain reaction based reverse line blot macroarray to simultaneously detect four pathogens of BW importance viz. Bacillus anthracis, Yersinia pestis, Brucella melitensis and Burkholderia pseudomallei. The multiplex PCR utilizes 14 pairs of primers targeting 18 specific markers. These markers include genes which are genus specific, species-specific chromosomal sequences and virulence markers of plasmid origin. The assay was evaluated on various human, environment and animal isolates. The assay w successful in simultaneous detection and characterization of isolates of the four pathogens on as a single platform with sensitivity ranging from 0.3 pg to 0.3 ng of genomic DNA. The assay was able to detect 5 × 10 cfu/ml for B. anthracis, 8 × 10 cfu/ml for Yersinia sp., 1.4 × 10 cfu/ml for B. melitensis and 4 × 10 cfu/ml for B. pseudomallei. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to distinguish bacteria from mixed samples is of great interest, especially in the medical and defence arenas. This paper reports a step towards the aim of differentiating pathogenic endospores in situ, to aid any required response for hazard management using infrared spectroscopy combined with multivariate analysis. We describe a proof-of-principle study aimed at discriminating biological warfare simulants from common environmental bacteria. We also report an evaluation of multiple pre-processing techniques and subsequent differences in cross-validation of two pattern recognition models (Support Vector Machines and Principal Component-Linear Discriminant Analysis) for a six-class classification (bacterial classification). These classifications were possible with an average sensitivity of 88.0 and 86.9 %, and an average specificity of 97.6 and 97.5 % for the SVM and the PC-LDA models, respectively. Most spectroscopic models are built upon spectra from bacteria that have been specifically prepared for analysis by a particular method; this paper will comment upon the differences in the bacterial spectrum that occur between specific preparations when the bacteria have spent 30 days in the simulated weather conditions of a hot dry climate. [Figure not available: see fulltext.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential use of ricin as an agent of biological warfare highlights the need to develop fast and effective methods to detect biologically active ricin. The current "gold standard" for ricin detection is an in vivo mouse bioassay; however, this method is not practical to test on a large number of samples and raises ethical concerns with regard to the use of experimental animals. In this work, we generated adenoviral vectors that express the green fluorescent protein gene and used the relative fluorescence units intensity inhibition by transduced cells for quantitative measurement of biologically active ricin. The detection limit of the assay was 200 pg/ml, which is over 500,000 times greater than the adult human lethal oral dose. The inhibition of fluorescence intensity between ricin treatment and control was higher in 72-h posttransduction Vero cells than 24-h human embryonic kidney ceils. Therefore, to detect biologically active ricin in food matrices that might influence the assay, we used 72-h posttransduction Vero cells. This simple assay could be used for large-scale screening to detect biologically active ricin in food without added substrates or use of cell fixation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To develop a model for quick and accurate evaluation of unusual epidemic events (UEE), based on the original model of bioterrorism risk assessment. Methods: A new scoring system was developed for quick differentiation between a biological attack and other epidemics, using eight qualitative and six quantitative indicators. Results: A new scoring system was applied to three UEEs: (1) a spontaneous outbreak of a new or re-emerging disease ('swine flu'); (2) a spontaneous outbreak following accidental release of a pathogen (Sverdlovsk anthrax); and (3) a spontaneous natural outbreak of a known endemic disease that may mimic bioterrorism or biowarfare (Kosovo tularaemia). The disease agent was found to be the most important and the most informative UEE component of the scoring system. Conclusions: This new scoring system may be useful for public health institutions and federal civil and military officials responsible for bio-attack investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scenarios where the results of well-intentioned scientific research can be used for both good and harmful purposes give rise to what is now widely known as the "dual-use dilemma". There has been growing debate about the dual-use nature of life science research with implications for making biological weapons. This paper reviews several controversial publications that have been the focus of debates about dual-use life science research and critically examines relevant policy developments, particularly in the United States of America. Though the dual-use dilemma is inherently ethical in nature, the majority of debates about dual-use research have primarily involved science and security experts rather than ethicists. It is important that there is more ethical input into debates about the governance of dual-use research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthrax, caused by the pathogenic bacterium Bacillus anthracis, is a zoonosis that causes serious disease and is of significant concern as a biological warfare agent. Validating annotated genes and reannotating misannotated genes are important to understand its biology and mechanisms of pathogenicity. Proteomics studies are, to date, the best method for verifying and improving current annotations. To this end, the proteome of B. anthracis A16R was analyzed via one-dimensional gel electrophoresis followed by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). In total, we identified 3,712 proteins, including many regulatory and key functional proteins at relatively low abundance, representing the most complete proteome of B. anthracis to date. Interestingly, eight sequencing errors were detected by proteogenomic analysis and corrected by resequencing. More importantly, three unannotated peptide fragments were identified in this study and validated by synthetic peptide mass spectrum mapping and green fluorescent protein fusion experiments. These data not only give a more comprehensive understanding of B. anthracis A16R but also demonstrate the power of proteomics to improve genome annotations and determine true translational elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]