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Enzyme produced by bacteriophage can destroy anthrax bacteria. (Studies in Humans Planned).
A protein made by an anthrax-specific bacteriophage kills the bacteria by destroying the cell walls, researchers from Rockefeller University, New York City said in a letter to Nature.
Raymond Schuch, Ph.D., Daniel Nelson, Ph.D., and Vincent A. Fischetti, Ph.D., described the enzyme PlyG as the jump-starter that causes bacteriophages specific to Bacillus anthracis to rupture and destroy the bacteria (Nature 418[6900]:884-89, 2002).
Anthrax bacteria seem unable to develop resistance to this lysine-based attack. "Lysins are highly evolved enzymes, modified and improved for high activity and specificity over millennia," they said. The PlyG lysin also may have treatment value. About 70% (13 of 19) of mice infected with Bacillus cereus (a close relative of anthrax) survived when given PlyG 15 minutes after infection.
With FDA ...