U. scientists work against bioterrorism

As President Bush pushes his plan for a national missile shield to protect the country against attack, a potentially more sinister and silent weapon is looming on the horizon -- bioterrorism. The threat that various organizations could one day, or already are, stockpiling biological weapons such as smallpox virus is a scenario that has prompted the federal government to come up with a plan to defend against such an attack. To deal with the possibility of a smallpox outbreak, the National Institutes of Health has granted Penn researchers Stuart Isaacs and John Lambris over $1 million to create new therapies to protect against the disease. "Smallpox may be largely forgotten, but it certainly isn't gone," Isaacs said. "There is a possibility, however slight, that terrorists could obtain the virus and release it within the U.S." According to Isaacs, his work is part of a larger program aimed at protecting the country against smallpox. "[While] our work is part of work that is being funded by the NIH, the Department of Defense is probably funding other investigations," Isaacs said. Last September, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta contracted the OraVax corporation in Cambridge, Mass. to produce a new smallpox vaccine. At one point over 20 years ago, smallpox -- a disease which can kill as much as 30 percent of those infected -- was considered "eradicated" by the World Health Organization. Because of the WHO's success in eliminating the disease, it was deemed in the 1970s that further vaccination was unnecessary. But now, there is only a small amount of the vaccine stockpiled worldwide to respond to a terrorist attack. "The U.S. response to a smallpox outbreak in Philadelphia would be to have a widespread vaccination," Isaacs said. But vaccination presents problems itself. Because the current vaccine is based on a live form of a virus related to the smallpox virus, complications can result from an act meant to prevent disease. "With any live virus vaccine there are potential adverse reactions, maybe even potential death," Isaacs said. Consequently, while OraVax attempts to create a new vaccine that targets the virus, the Penn team is looking to target proteins produced by the virus. "We are looking at a combination punch to knock out the effects of the smallpox virus," Lambris said. One therapy under research would prevent the virus from entering cells, where it multiplies. Although smallpox is just one disease among many that could be used as weapons by terrorists, smallpox is, according to Isaacs, one of the most probable. "Smallpox is listed as the number one or number two agent to be used," Isaacs said. "It can be dried down to a powder and released in the air." Tara O'Toole, a researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, wrote in a paper last year that one smallpox attack would cause an epidemic in just under a month. Should an attack occur next week, Isaacs said, time lost in diagnosis would allow the disease to spread. "In the first few cases it will take a while to make the diagnosis," he said. "Some might die, some might recover, but in the meantime they've spread it to other people."

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