Immunology of Infectious Disease Commons^™

Extracellular And Intracellular Neutralization Of Ricin Toxin By Engineered Bispecific Antibodies, Cristina Herrera

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Engineering anti-toxin antibodies (Ab) is of public health interest for biodefense counter measurements. Ricin toxin is one example of a major biothreat agent that has currently no antidote. Ricin is a glycoprotein from the castor bean plant, Ricinus communis, and belongs to the medically important A-B toxin family that also includes Shiga, anthrax and cholera toxins. Ricin’s enzymatic subunit (RTA) is an RNA N-glycosidase that inhibits protein synthesis by irreversibly depurinating the 28S rRNA of the eukaryotic 60S ribosomal subunit. RTB is a galactose-/N-acetylgalactosamine-specific lectin that has two important functions. First, RTB promotes binding and endocytosis of ricin into mammalian …