Preface Biological Toxins—Ancient Molecules Posing a Current Threat

Based on their characteristics, biological toxins are at the interface of classical biological and chemical agents: for example, ricin and saxitoxin are prohibited substances under both the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention. The latter also prohibits bacterial toxins such as botulinum neurotoxins (BoNT) and staphylococcal enterotoxins (SE). Generally, biological toxins are substances produced by living organisms (e.g., plants, bacteria, algae), but they are not living, hence unable to reproduce, propagate or spread from person to person. Therefore, they share many of the characteristics of classical chemical agents (e.g., sarin). However, since high molecular weight proteins like ricin or BoNT exert an enzymatic function within the body amplifying their potency, they are clearly different from the low molecular-weight chemical warfare agents and, additionally, they display orders of magnitude of higher specific toxicity to humans. Generally, biological toxins are relevant in the health and food sector as well as in the security sector. On the one hand, biological toxins are linked with natural intoxications worldwide and some of them cause severe and recurrent diseases (e.g., food poisoning induced by SE and marine toxins like saxitoxin; the life-threatening disease botulism induced by BoNT). On the other hand, the relative ease in preparing some of the mentioned toxins and the world-wide availability of the biological sources constitute them as potential agents of bioterrorism. The ricin-containing letters sent to U.S. President Obama and several other decision makers in the USA in 2003 and 2013 showed that biological toxins can be produced by laypersons and that they can be intentionally released in a criminal act to harm individuals or groups of people. In recognizing that biological toxins are a source of natural intoxications as well as potential agents of bioterrorism, it is important to know how well prepared our vulnerable, open societies are with respect to detection of biological toxins of potential bioterrorism risk. In this context, the European Union funded a project abbreviated EQuATox (“Establishment of Quality Assurances for the Detection of Biological Toxins of Potential Bioterrorism Risk”, grant agreement No. 285120, www.equatox.eu) from January 2012 to December 2014. One major goal of the project was to set up a network of nationally appointed laboratories for the detection of biological toxins of potential bioterrorism risk. The EQuATox project focused in-depth on biological toxins and their intricacies with respect to detection, identification, structure and function—topics that might become relevant for an efficient management of natural or man-made incidents involving biological toxins. The main task of EQuATox was to define the status quo of detection technology for biological toxins in EU-28 and associated countries. EQuATox gathered expert laboratories from the security, verification, health and food sector—35 laboratories from 20 countries worldwide—to work on biological toxins of potential bioterrorism