Expression of the maize mitochondrial T-urf13 gene results in a sensitivity to a family of fungal pathotoxins and to methomyl, a structurally unrelated systemic insecticide. Similar effects of pathotoxins and methomyl are observed when T-urf13 is cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. An interaction between these compounds and the membrane-bound URF13 protein permeabilizes the inner mitochon...

In vivo targeting of peptides to antigen-presenting cells by use of agonistic anti-CD40 monoclonal antibodies has been used successfully as an immune response enhancing strategy. When tested in chickens, the antibody-guided platform was capable of inducing specific IgG production within 1 week postimmunization. However, use of this method beyond its initial conception as a vaccine delivery tool...

Exposure of Chinese hamster ovary cells to cholera toxin at or below mug levels causes a marked morphological changes and increased adhesion and orientation of the cells. Such changes are paralleled by alterations in surface proteins as indicated by the cholera toxin-mediated modifications detectable by lactoperoxidase-catalyzed radioiodination of outer proteins. Mild tryptic treatment of cells...

background: achalasia is the most recognized esophageal motor disorder with an unknown etiology. symptoms rather than physical findings are hallmarks of the disease. modalilies for treatment include pharmacologic, botulinum toxin injection, pneumatic dilation and surgery. materials and methods: to review the diagnostic and therapeutic options currently available for achalasia. a medline search ...

bacterial protein toxins have been exploited as therapeutic agents and as vaccines. an issue of deserving interest is development of new generations of vaccines and immune adjuvants. in this study an active assembled recombinant shiga toxin of escherichia coli (rstx1) and its derivatives, recombinant a and b subunits (stx1-a and stx1-b), were used to immunize mice. the elicited antibody respons...

35S-labeled killer toxin protein bound to cells of sensitive Saccharomyces cerevisiae S14a. Strains that were resistant to toxin through mutation in the nuclear genes kre1 kre2 bound toxin only weakly. Non-radioactive toxin competed effectively with 35S-labeled toxin for binding to S14a, but did not compete significantly in the binding to mutant kre1-1. This implied that binding to kre1-1 was ...

Immunomodulatory cytotoxins are prominent virulence factors produced by Staphylococcus aureus, a leading cause of bacterial sepsis, skin infection, and pneumonia. S. aureus α-toxin is a pore-forming toxin that utilizes a widely expressed receptor, ADAM10, to injure the host epithelium, endothelium, and immune cells. As each host tissue is characterized by a unique composition of resident cells ...

Pertussis toxin catalyzes ADP-ribosylation of a family of GTP-binding proteins (G alpha proteins) involved in signal transduction. It is thought that this activity is responsible for the attenuating effects of the toxin on the actions of a number of hormones and neurotransmitters. By utilizing specific antisera for detecting on electrophoretic transfer blots (Western blots) alpha proteins that ...