The activity of a pore on the surface of human cells may be a critical step to anthrax infection, according to Harvard Medical School researchers. They believe the finding could help lead to new methods of fighting the deadly bacterium.Their study, published in the July 29 issue of Science, found that the anthrax bacterium secretes three nontoxic proteins that form into a “toxic complex” on the surface of the host human cell. This sets off a sequence of events that results in cell toxicity and death.
