OT: Genetic Engineering is Regularly Used to Produce Lethal Bacteria

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An interesting post this one ..

 

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[HEALTHE] Genetic engineering is regularly used to produce

lethal bacteria

Wed, 17 Oct 2001 16:42:54 -0500

Bunny Snow <sksnow

Health and Environment Resource

Center<HEALTHE

HEALTHE

 

http://www.sunshine-project.org/bwintro/gebw.html

 

Genetic engineering is regularly used to produce lethal bacteria

 

It sounds like science fiction, but it is a deadly reality: lethal

microbes, with no cure, invisible to detection systems, and able to

overcome vaccines. In 'defensive' programs, researchers in the USA, UK,

Russia and Germany have genetically engineered biological weapons

agents, building new deadly strains. And this is probably only the tip

of the iceberg.

 

Genetic engineering can be used to broaden the classical bioweapons

arsenal. Through genetic engineering, bacteria can not only be made

resistant to antibiotics or vaccines, they can also be made even more

toxic, harder to detect, or more stable in the environment. By using

genetic methods that are standard procedures in thousands of labs

worldwide, bioweapons can be made more virulent, easier to handle, and

harder to fight. In short, more effective.

 

Military experts are perfectly aware of the danger of genetically

engineered bioweapons, as their traditional defense measures -

e.g.detection methods or vaccines - are easily sidestepped by the

artificial microbes. The speedy development of genetic engineering is

one driving force to strengthen the Bioweapons Convention (1) and

establish a verification system.

 

Example 1: Bacteria causing unusual symptoms

 

Researchers from Obolensk near Moscow inserted a gene into Francisella

tularensis, the causative agent of tularemia and a well known

biological weapon agent. The gene made the bacteria produce

beta-endorphin, an endogenous human drug, which caused changes in the

behaviour of mice when infected with the transgenic bacteria. (2)

According to the published results, the endorphin gene was not

introduced into a fully virulent strain, but only into a vaccine

strain.

 

If inserted into virulent F. tularensis, the victims would not show the

usual symptoms of tularemia, but instead unusual symptoms that would

obscure the diagnosis and delay therapy. Development of symptom-altered

BW-agents has been identified as one possible application of genetic

engineering for BW purposes by the US Department of Defense. (3)

 

Example 2: Transferring a lethal factor to harmless human gut bacteria

 

Genetic engineering could make previously harmless bacteria lethal

biological weapons by introducing deadly genes from a highly pathogenic

organism. This was done by US researchers as early as 1986. They

isolated the gene for the lethal factor of Bacillus anthracis, the

causative agent of anthrax, and introduced into Escherichia coli, a

normally harmless gut bacteria. The US team reported that the lethal

factor protein was active in E. coli and displayed the same deadly

effects as it did when in its native B. anthracis. (4)

 

Example 3: Antibiotic resistant anthrax and tularemia

 

Antibiotic resistance is often used as a marker gene in genetic

engineering experiments. However, the very same genes could render

biological weapons more dangerous by making agents less treatable. Any

experiment with biological weapons agents using antibiotic resistance

genes has a strong offensive potential, even if in the context of

“defensive” research. Despite this obvious problem, there is a long

list of questionable experiments:

 

German military researchers at the Santitaetsakademie der Bundeswehr in

Munich, the main BW research facility of the German army, cultured

genetically engineered Francisella tularensis subsp. holarctica bacteria

(5), a close relative of the causative agent of tularaemia. An

antibiotic resistance marker gene (tetracyclin) was been inserted into

these bacteria.

 

Recently, researchers from Porton Down in the UK used genes conferring

resistance to antibiotics for genetic studies in fully virulent strains

of anthrax. (6) In the late 1980s, a researcher at the University of

Massaschussetts in Amherst also introduced antibiotic resistance genes

into anthrax, making it less treatable with antibiotics. (7)

 

There are even more cases: Researchers from the Institut Pasteur in

Paris (8) and from a Russian laboratory in Obolensk (near Moscow) (9)

introduced antibiotic resistance genes into anthrax bacteria. All these

studies are allegedly " basic research " , where antibiotic resistance is

used as a marker gene. But it is obvious that the very same genetically

engineered bacteria can be used to design more effective bioweapons

compared to the natural anthrax strains.

 

Example 4: Invisible anthrax

 

In December 1997, the same Russian research group from Obolensk

published a paper in a British scientific journal on another effort to

genetically engineer anthrax. (10) By putting new genes into fully

pathogenic strains of anthrax, the scientists altered anthrax´s

immunopathogenic properties, making existing anthrax vaccines

ineffective against the new genetically-engineered types.

 

In most cases, detection of bioweapons relies on molecular recognition

of the microbe using antibodies similar to the human immune system.

Altering the immunogenicity not only overcomes vaccinations; but also

the detection systems.

 

Western military experts were alarmed by this work. The chief of the

bacteriology division at the US Army Medical Research Institute of

Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Md, Col. Arthur

Friedlander, commented: " This is the first indication we're aware of in

which genes are being put into a fully virulent strain. They genetically

engineered a strain that's resistant to their own vaccine, and one has

to question why that was done " . (11)

 

The Russian researchers also constructed a new vaccine against the new

strain. This is of particular importance, as it could enable an army to

use such a bioweapon by vaccinating their soldiers against a specific

strain, while the enemy remains vulnerable. The case is an example of

the frightening potential of genetic engineering applied to biological

weapons research.

 

Notes:

 

(1) Full text here.

 

(2) Borzenkov VM, Pomerantsev AP, Ashmarin IP (1993) The additive

synthesis of a regulatory peptide in vivo: the administration of a

vaccinal Francisella tularensis strain that produces beta-endorphin

Biull Eksp Biol Med 116(8):151-3 (Article in Russian)

 

(3) Jane " s Defence Weekly, 13. August 1997, page 6: US DoD reveals

horrific future of biological wars

 

(4) Robertson DL, Leppla SH (1986) Molecular cloning and expression in

Escherichia coli of the lethal factor gene of Bacillus anthracis. Gene

44(1):71-8

 

(5) Personal communication from the lead scientist at the

Sanitaetsakademie. For further information, contact Dr. Biederbick at

the German Ministry of Defense, ++49-228-12-6247

 

(6) Bowen JE, Quinn CP The native virulence plasmid combination affects

the segregational stability of a theta-replicating shuttle vector in

Bacillus anthracis var. New Hampshire. J Appl Microbiol 1999

Aug;87(2):270-8

 

(7) Nass M (1991), The labyrinth of biological defense. The PSR

Quarterly, March 1991, Vol.1, page 24

 

(8) C. Pezard, E. Duflot, M. Mock from the Laboratoire de Genetique

Moleculaire des Toxines, Institut Pasteur, Paris: Constructing of

Bacillus anthracis mutant strains producing a single toxin component. J.

Gen. Microbiol. 139:2459-2463 (1993)

 

(9) A.P. Pomerantsev, N.A. Staritsyn (1996) Behaviour of heterologous

recombinant plasmid pCET in cells of Bacillus anthracis. Genetika

32:500-509

 

(10) Vaccine 15(17-18):1846-1850, Dec 1997, Pomerantsev AP. Staritsin

NA. Mockov YV. Marinin LI., Expression of cereolysine ab genes in

Bacillus anthracis vaccine strain ensures protection against

experimental hemolytic anthrax infection

 

(11) New York Times, Feb. 14, 1998,Gene-engineered anthrax: is it a

weapon?

 

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