Special Issue "Detection and identification of biological toxins in international proficiency tests"
A special issue of Toxins (ISSN 2072-6651).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2015) | Viewed by 96723
Special Issue Editors
Interests: botulinum neurotoxin; ricin; tetanus neurotoxin; Clostridium perfringens; Clostridium botulinum; Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin (SE)
Interests: Diagnostics of microbial and plant toxins, German consultant laboratory for C. botulinum
Special Issue Information
Dear colleagues,
Based on their characteristics, biological toxins are at the interface of classical biological and chemical agents: ricin and saxitoxin are prohibited substances under both, the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the Biological Weapons Convention, the latter one also prohibits bacterial toxins, such as botulinum neurotoxins (BoNT) and staphylococcal enterotoxins (SET). Generally, biological toxins are relevant in the security, health and food sectors. The relative ease in preparing some of the mentioned toxins and the worldwide availability of the biological sources constitutes them as potential agents of bioterrorism. However, biological toxins are also linked with natural intoxications, and some of them cause severe and recurrent diseases worldwide.
Although different technologies for toxin detection and analysis are in use, hardly any universally agreed upon “gold standard” methods, as well as no qualified reference materials, are available, and basic questions regarding standardized detection of these molecules are unresolved. While the importance of the mentioned biological toxins as potential agents of bioterrorism and as source of natural intoxications has been recognized, it is not clear, how well prepared laboratories are with respect to detection and identification of these toxins.
The European Union funded consortium EQuATox focuses, in-depth, on biological toxins and their intricacies with respect to detection, identification, structure, and function. The EQuATox project has, for the first time, gathered expert laboratories from the security, verification, health and food sectors to work on biological toxins. The project obtained highly important results with respect to reference materials, standardized detection and best practices in four proficiency tests focusing on ricin, saxitoxin, staphylococcal enterotoxin B and botulinum neurotoxins. The results will be highlighted in a series of articles in the Toxins Special Issue "Detection and identification of biological toxins in international proficiency tests".
Dr. Andreas Rummel
Dr. Brigitte G. Dorner
Guest editors
Note added by the Publisher: the Guest Editors were not involved in the editorial process for manuscripts on which they are authors. In this case, the editorial decisions were done by independent editorial board members.
Submission
Invited manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxins is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs).
Keywords
- bacterial protein toxins
- proficiency test
- best practices
- ricin
- saxitoxin
- staphylococcal enterotoxin B
- botulinum neurotoxin
- reference material
- standardised detection