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To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (1547)	8/16/2002 12:00:15 PM
From: ms.smartest.person	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5140

US Military Experimenting With Anthrax Antidote 5:47 am PST, 16 August 2002 Military scientists at Fort Detrick, Md., are experimenting with a new gene procedure they hope will lead to antidotes for anthrax and other diseases that could be used as bioterror weapons. Gene vaccines, as they are called, use DNA-coated gold pellets injected into the body with a pneumatic "gun." Once there, the body, theoretically, would unleash killer T-cells to attack and destroy the diseased DNA. "Traditional vaccines are highly effective at conferring long-term immunity against diseases like measles, mumps, and polio, but because they involve growing and injecting a live pathogen, they're costly, cumbersome to produce and transport, and too dangerous to use against super-virulent viruses like HIV," said Wired Magazine, which reported on the new procedure Friday. However, gene therapy is an outgrowth of traditional vaccination therapy, developed mostly after an explosion of knowledge about genetics in the 1970s, the magazine said. "By isolating a harmless snippet of a pathogen's DNA and injecting it into the body, researchers believe they can fool the immune system into developing an attack plan against a particular disease even though the body was never exposed to it," said Wired. "I still can't believe it actually works," said Jenny Riemenschneider, part of a team of military scientists working on the new procedure. "DNA vaccines are incredibly easy to make. You can produce them in days or weeks, whereas the traditional methods often take years." Riemenschneider says she has spent that past seven years investigating killer viruses such as Ebola. The breakthrough comes as U.S. intelligence officials become increasingly worried that new terrorist attacks could involve the use of bioweapons such as anthrax or smallpox. However, despite early successes, there was no indication when gene vaccines would be available, though Wired reported that one such vaccine designed to destroy cancerous tumors could be approved as early as next year. News © 2001 to: Sci-Tech News Friday 16 August 2002 7am.com