Vaccine Is Promising for Poisonous Ricin
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Initial human tests indicate that an experimental vaccine for ricin works and is safe, raising the possibility that the vaccine might one day offer protection from the toxin, which authorities fear could be used as a terrorist weapon.
The vaccine protected mice from the poison, which is extracted from castor beans, and it safely elicited antibodies in humans, researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center reported Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
