Scientists discover new super toxin so dangerous, they’re keeping it secret
This can’t end well...Daily News reports on what is described as the ’deadliest substance on earth’...
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Scientists discover new type of deadly botox, won’t release DNA sequence
By Rheana Murray | DailyNews
[...]Researchers from the California Department of Health are refusing to release the DNA sequence of the new botulinum toxin because there is no known antidote — the first time a sequence has been withheld from public records over safety concerns, according to New Scientist.
If published, the DNA sequence would pose “an immediate and unusually serious risk to society,” said Stanford University’s David Relman, who provided commentary for the report published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
It would take a microscopic injection of just 2 billionths of a gram — or inhaling 13 billionths of a gram — of the new Botox to kill an adult. Victims would contract botulism and eventually die of paralysis.
Lead study author Stephen Arnon and colleagues discovered the new substance — the 8th known botulinum toxin, called toxin H — in the feces of a child who had botulism.
Only the first two types of Botox — A and B — are used in cosmetic procedures.
Today, botulism patients are treated with antibodies, but in Arnon’s study, antibodies didn’t save mice that had been infected with toxin H.
Researchers worked with the U.S. Army’s infectious diseases laboratory, Homeland Security and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to keep the new toxin’s sequence in safe hands, according to New Scientist.
Read the full article at: nydailynews.com
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