Scientists are on their way to developing an effective antidote for botulinum toxin - one of the world’s most feared biological weapons. The researchers have developed a protein that blocks the effects of the toxin by tricking it into not attacking cells in the body. The protein acts on the most powerful of these seven toxins produced by the Clostridium botulinum bacterium, for which there is no medical treatment. The developed protein behaves as a decoy to proteins in the nerve cells, which means that the toxin chooses not to attach itself to the nerve cells when it enters the body, preventing paralysis.

Researchers from Cardiff University and University of Maryland have revealed that a cup of the widely-available English Breakfast tea may act as an antidote to bacillus anthracis, popularly called anthrax. The activity of anthrax, a potentially fatal disease, is inhibited by polyphenols present in the tea. Published in Society for Applied Microbiology’s journal Microbiologist, the research further says that the addition of whole milk to tea completely curbs the antibacterial activity against the disease.