Microbicidal power of alpha radiation in sterilizing germinating Bacillus anthracis spores
Johanna Rivera1, Alfred Morgenstern, Frank Bruchertseifer
1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA.
Abstract:
Radioimmunotherapy (RIT) takes advantage of the specificity and affinity of the antigen-antibody interaction to deliver microbicidal radioactive nuclides to a site of infection. In this study, we investigated the microbicidal properties of an alpha particle-emitting 213Bi-labeled monoclonal antibody (MAb), EA2-1 (213Bi-EA2-1), that binds to the immunodominant antigen on Bacillus anthracis spores. Our results showed that dormant spores were resistant to 213Bi-EA2-1. Significant spore killing was observed following treatment with EA2-1 labeled with 300 μCi 213Bi; however, this effect was not dependent on the MAb. In contrast, when spores were germinating, 213Bi-EA2-1 mediated MAb-specific killing in a dose-dependent manner. Dormant spores are very resistant to RIT, and RIT should focus on targeting vegetative cells and germinating spores.
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