Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Am I "immune" against Ricin?

Xanax - 26-5-2006 at 05:48

Scientist is researching in a vaccine against Ricin. There are lot of articles that they have succed to make a working vaccine!

As known, a vaccine's are working through a small quantity of a weakened substance (let say for tetanus), a weakened solution of tetanus is injected. Same for virus, a small quantity of a weakened solution of (let say for jaundice).

All vaccine's are working throught that the body begins to produce antibody´s against the virus, bacteria or toxin. Thats why you only can get, for example, chicken-pox once in a life, then the body has produced antibody´s against chicken-pox.

So, now I have been exposed for Ricin/Abrin two times (see http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=2917).

Is it possible that my body has produced antibody´s against these two toxic proteins?

kazaa81 - 27-5-2006 at 15:45

Hope for you that you are so...however, I wouldn't play too much with ricin unless fool-proof to it.
I warned you...be careful. Becoming immune at a toxin isn't like becoming immune from malaria. Also, the kind of poisoning ricine gives make me think one can't become immune just by being poisoned twice.

[Edited on 28-5-2006 by kazaa81]

Chris The Great - 27-5-2006 at 17:25

I certainly wouldn't trust yourself to be immune. You might be, you might not be. It would not be pleasant to discover that you are not in fact immune.

=SkyNET= - 28-5-2006 at 14:10

Youve been exposed twice?

The thing about ricin is you cant go to the hospital if you are exposed these days else you be labled as a terrorist for making it.

I'd suggest staying away from it from now on. You cant really do much with ricin anyway.

And like chris said, i wouldnt test a possible immunity

prole - 1-6-2006 at 12:12

I believe the operative word here is 'tolerance', and not immunity. One can grow accustomed to small doses of strychnine over time, but is it worth it? To me, ricin is pretty much only good for inflicting harm on others and should be limited to licensed researchers, like those studying how to counter the effects of ricin poisoning. "I believe" (insert soap box here) most chemicals should be made available to most people, ie, non-terrorists, but some should simply be avoided.

Organikum - 1-6-2006 at 13:38

AFAIK one can get pretty tolerant to cyanides for example but not immune. Nevertheless I think you have been just damn lucky and you should really stop this nonsense.
Or at least not post it here.

/ORG

lordmagnus - 1-6-2006 at 18:41

STOP experimenting with RICIN! You are not naturally IMMUNE, read about RICIN, and how it destroys cells.

The US army has been experimenting with a fragment of the ricin protien to impart an immune system response, and a partial resistance to the toxin when it is used as a biologically derrived chemical weapon. They are also working along the same lines with botulism toxin.

Canuck - 7-6-2006 at 22:30

You are FUCKING nuts.. Ricin is NOTHING you want to fuck with !
You didn't even get a slight dose Xanax.. if you did your ghost would be typing on this forum.
-- Also you could be charged with manufacturing an active biological agent. most likely you end up killing yourself before this happens.
Take all the advice from this forum and CEASE your experimenting with it before you do something you'll regret.


:mad::o:o:o

Organikum - 7-6-2006 at 22:55

Well look Canuck you didn´t really say something new did you? Naaa... So what? Many people on this board could by the letter of the law get charged with whatever. Thats no argument. That it´s dangerous is no argument either. You have some bad misunderstanding about what and why people are experimenting here.
I will help you:
- it´s fun
- it´s science
- it´s dangerous
- it´s fobidden
- it makes "booom" (in the air)
- it makes "booom" (in your brain)

So thats about it.

Why we told this guy to stop is not because WHAT he tried but HOW he did it and that the starnge ideas he has will kill him if he keeps believing in them.


No offense Canuck.
Hope you got the idea.

thx
/ORG

Canuck - 8-6-2006 at 21:36

got it.. I want to put the fear into this overcurious experimenter and save a life.

;)

lordmagnus - 8-6-2006 at 21:55

I am with canuck on this. Experimenting with Ricin is illegal, since it has no other use except as a extremely painfull deadly poison, As for people being charged with stuff, I am sure they could charge most of us with something depending on what state or county you live in, but most of it would iwnd up being dropped if nothing malicious was the intended result, while manufacturing ricin or a purified extract, by nature would be for nothing other than malicious purposes, same witht he people experimetning with amphetamines on this board, then end result is simply illegal

=SkyNET= - 8-6-2006 at 23:28

Hey now, amphetamine experiments can be useful.

Ritalin is an AmP and legal.

Vitus_Verdegast - 10-6-2006 at 10:31

Agreed, not everything that makes "booom" in the brain is illegal.
If one is careful one can perform many experiments without breaking the law.

I take it that we'll not discuss moral issues with that.

Of course ricin and abrin are a completely different thing, as you not only risk your own health but that of your neighbour(hood).

n1k - 19-6-2006 at 20:34

Not to mention you will harm yourself permanently with every exposure to those nasties..

halogen - 27-6-2006 at 21:56

Pardon me, but what a cretin...

battery - 29-6-2006 at 02:29

dude are you fuckin nuts ricin is some deadly shit dont be playin about with it you can hurt other people like family if they accidently find it or summut and dont no wat its for leave the stuf alone mate stay away:(:mad:

Organikum - 3-11-2006 at 10:52

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES / IMMUNOLOGY
A pilot clinical trial of a recombinant ricin vaccine in normal humans

Ellen S. Vitetta*,,, Joan E. Smallshaw*,, Elaine Coleman*, Hasan Jafri, Callie Foster¶, Robert Munford,||, and John Schindler*

*Cancer Immunobiology Center, Aston Center, Departments of Microbiology, Pediatrics, and ||Internal Medicine, and ¶Clinical Trials Office at the Aston Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, TX 75390



Ricin, a highly potent toxin produced by castor beans, is classified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a level B biothreat because it is easily produced, readily available, and highly stable. There have been >750 cases of documented ricin intoxication in humans. There is no approved vaccine for ricin. Ricin contains a lectin-binding B chain and a ribotoxic A chain (RTA). In addition to its ribotoxic site, we have identified a separate site on RTA that is responsible for inducing vascular leak syndrome (VLS) in humans. We have generated a recombinant RTA with two amino acid substitutions that disrupt its ribotoxic site (Y80A) and its VLS-inducing site (V76M). This mutant recombinant RTA (named RiVax) was expressed and produced in Escherichia coli and purified. When RiVax was injected i.m. into mice it protected them against a ricin challenge of 10 LD50s. Preclinical studies in both mice and rabbits demonstrated that RiVax was safe. Based on these results, we have now conducted a pilot clinical trial in humans under an investigational new drug application submitted to the Food and Drug Administration. In this study, three groups of five normal volunteers were injected three times at monthly intervals with 10, 33, or 100 µg of RiVax. The vaccine was safe and elicited ricin-neutralizing Abs in one of five individuals in the low-dose group, four of five in the intermediate-dose group, and five of five in the high-dose group. These results justify further development of the vaccine.

Contributed by Ellen S. Vitetta, December 19, 2005

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/103/7/2268

Elawr - 3-11-2006 at 12:20

It is possible that repeated, sublethal exposure to ricin in humans could elicit some form of immune response to the poison capable of inactivating it. Apparently this happens in animal studies as referenced above. Many biological toxins can be inactivated by the immune system. Snake antivenin, after all, is manufactured from the serum of horses made immune by very small doses of particular snake venoms.

The problem with ricin is of course its extreme toxicity. Even the microgram amounts needed to stimulate an immune response can kill. You could dilute the stuff down enough to dose yourself with only a few molecules of the stuff and live, but probably develop no immunity. That would be the dicey part - determining what amount would constitute that effective sublethal dose!

[Edited on 3-11-2006 by Elawr]

halogen - 5-11-2006 at 05:54

Even then, however, I imagine the "effective sublethal amount" would cause severe illness...

Elawr - 5-11-2006 at 06:47

It appears we are all in agreement that exposing ones self to ricin is a really bad idea, irregardless any possibility of aquired immunity.

[Edited on 5-11-2006 by Elawr]