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Biotech / Medical : Bioterrorism -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JMarcus who wrote (628)	1/7/2003 12:55:35 PM
From: scaram(o)uche	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 891

Vitetta is back to biotech, new wrinkle on an old theme (ricin).

To: JMarcus who wrote (628)	1/8/2003 6:31:52 AM
From: scott_jiminez	Respond to of 891

FYI - The lectin Ricin has been a reagent in biomedical laboratories for decades. For example, I have applied Ricin, as the non-lethal isoform Ricin communis agglutinin (RCA), to readily mark microglia/macrophage in neural tissue. The history of this lectin is interesting. Previously, it was thought that Ricin functioned as a blood-agglutinating protein. This was believed because early preparations of extracts from the Castor Bean plant did in fact agglutinate red blood cells. This effect was found to be due exclusively to the RCA moiety present in early preparations. However, RCA is not very toxic to mammalian cells. It was found that Ricin, specifically the Ricin A chain, was the (much) more toxic compound, and its mode of action is via ribosomal inactivation. BTW, Ricinus communis was named by Carl Von Linne (Linneaus) who used the term ricinus (= tick in Latin) in reference to the appearance of the Castor bean seed (resembling a huge tick engorged with blood) and communis to describe the plant's common occurrence. [see www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/castorbean.html, coast.gkss.de, Corbett, SL Valdosta State University]