FEBRUARY 12, 2025 – The complexity of the biothreat landscape, augmented by advancements in biotechnologies, requires the Department of Defense (DoD) to develop agnostic platforms and programs to rapidly characterize biothreats and accelerate countermeasure development to better protect warfighters, the nation, and our allies.
For this reason, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s (DTRA) Chemical and Biological Technologies Department in its role as the Joint Science and Technologies Office (JSTO) for Chemical and Biological Defense, an integral component of the Chemical and Biological Defense Program, invested with the U.S. Army Medical Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) to establish a streamlined program called the Threat Area Panel (TAP) augmenting their current mission with the rapid assessment of current and emerging biological threats.
The TAP program brings together subject matter experts in predesignated biothreat areas, or panels, to quickly respond to emerging biothreats, identify knowledge gaps in threat agent science, and assess or maintain unique DoD-owned operational threat characterization capabilities. An incident of companion animal exposure to an unknown toxin shows how the USAMRIID TAP teams, in conjunction with interagency partners, supported the rapid detection and characterization of clinical samples. This opportunity allowed DTRA JSTO to use current characterization capabilities while assessing future needs in personnel, infrastructure, and agnostic methods to be prepared for the full spectrum of biothreats.
USAMRIID TAP received a request from U.S. Food and Drug Administration colleagues to help investigate the death of two companion dogs that reportedly licked rocks containing corals suspected to be contaminated with a marine toxin. The most striking postmortem feature was severe thymic hemorrhage, which is a hallmark of rodenticide toxicity, but this was ruled out by testing. Given the oral exposure to the coral aquarium rocks and other findings during the necroscopic examination, the suspected cause of death was toxicosis by palytoxin (PLTX), which with related compounds are an extremely potent group of marine biotoxins. The toxic activity of PLTX results from the binding to sodium potassium ATPase, converting this critical cellular ionic pump into a nonselective pore with potentially lethal consequences.
PLTX was confirmed by high performance liquid chromatography and high-resolution mass spectrometry analysis in dried coral samples removed from the rock associated with the exposures. Analysis of the stomach content and blood samples from the livers and kidneys of the deceased dogs revealed levels of PLTX at an approximate concentration of 3µg/mL.
While this case demonstrates a specific veterinary application of diagnostic tools, the work highlights the flexibility of DoD capabilities, showing the value the TAP program provides in identifying DoD personnel, using robust DoD capabilities to quickly characterize and counter unknown biological threats, and leveraging inter-agency partners for a coordinated U.S. government response.
DTRA JSTO’s investments in robust threat agent characterization capabilities are vital to national defense and provide key understanding of biological threats critical to detection, diagnostics, and medical countermeasure development. In valuable partnerships with DoD service laboratories, such as USAMRIID, DTRA JSTO provides the Joint Force with the right capabilities to effectively combat an ever-expanding biothreat landscape and limit technical surprise.
POC: Giselle Roman Hernandez, PhD, Giselle.m.roman-hernandez.civ@mail.mil
Courtesy Story
Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Chemical and Biological Technologies Department