[Present status and prospects for the detection of Bacillus anthracis--a review]

Anthrax, as a fulminating infectious disease, threatens human' s health seriously. Bacillus anthracis, the agent of anthrax, was classified into the second kinds of pathogenic microorganisms (one kind of the highly pathogenic microorganism) in the List of Human Pathogenic Microorganisms issued by the Chinese government. The spores formed by B. anthracis are potential material for biological warfare agent and biological terror. Therefore, it is very important and pressing to develop sensitive, efficient detection methods for the bacteria. For detection methods of B. anthracis, there are four types of targets : spores, vegetative cells, genes and anthrax toxin proteins. Among them, detection methods targeting spores and vegetative cells are developed. However, owing to disadvantages in specificity and clinical practicality, these methods are far from satisfaction. Detection methods targeting genes of B. anthracis are satisfactory in specificity and sensitivity, while it is short in clinical diagnosis. At the same time, the development of detection methods targeting anthrax toxin makes it possible to acquire information about main causative agent directly, which brings about great help in clinical diagnosis as well as epidemiology research. Herein, we summarized briefly detection methods of B. anthracis developed currently, investigated their application ranges and detection capacity, and discussed the development trend of related research, expecting favoring the profession developing detection methods of B. anthracis.