Team:Washington/Gram Positive

Anthrax

Bacillus anthracis

Anthrax is a lethal disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, which can spread by ingestion, inhalation, or cutaneous lesion contact of spores. This disease is not contagious, cannot be transferred from an infected organism, though bacterial spores can be transported in a multitude of ways and will infect potential victims.

Bacillus anthracis is found in two forms: spore and vegetative. Spores of Bacillus anthracis are extremely resilient, remaining potent even after enduring the harshest climates for multiple centuries. After spores successfully infect an organism, Bacillus anthracis changes to its vegetative state and begins growth and reproduction. The vegetative state is the source of the anthrax disease. If the vegetative state is exposed to oxygen, it immediately changes to the spore form, once again becoming infectious.

CapD

CapD Protein Structure

Anthrax creates a poly-γ-D-glutamate (PDGA) capsule which prevents the immune system from recognizing it as a pathogen and performing phagocytosis to eliminate the threat. Naturally, anthrax excretes a long strand of PDGA and uses its CapD to cleave and anchor the PDGA to its peptidoglycan, the outer coat of the cell membrane, as a protective capsule; however, research shows that an overexpression of CapD will destroy the capsule, removing anthrax's immunity to phagocytosis.

Goal

CapD is naturally a transpeptidase, favoring reactions with amino acids to perform its task, cleaving PDGA. However, CapD would be invaluable as a hydrolase, reacting with water to cleave PDGA, because of the high levels of water in the human body. If a mutant CapD could be engineered as an extremely efficient hydrolase, it is theorized that a single dose of concentrated CapD into the blood stream would easily decimate anthrax populations, nullifying its lethal properties.