Food poisoning and non-food poisoning illnesses due to C. perfringens (by enterotoxin production) have been associated to chromosomal or plasmidic location of the cpe gene, respectively. Clostridial pathogenicity has been correlated to protease and azoreductase production. The aim of this work was: i) to assess the sanitary-hygienic quality of dehydrated soups (100 samples) consumed in San Luis...

Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin (CPE) was found to possess interferon (IFN)-producing and mitogenic activities to human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Both activities were demonstrated only in the T lymphocyte-rich fraction from healthy volunteers. The IFN produced appeared to be gamma-type since the activity of the IFN was neutralized by antiserum against human IFN-gamma. With formali...

colonized with CPE. Prospective studies using innovative laboratory techniques are needed on patients with CPE during outbreaks and in endemic settings over periods of time, while in the hospital and after discharge. These studies will help us further understand the natural history of CPE colonization and determine the host/patient, environmental, and microbial factors that may help us predict ...

Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin (CPE) is a three-domain polypeptide, which binds to Claudin-3 and Claudin-4 with high affinity. Because these receptors are highly differentially expressed in many human tumors, claudin-3 and claudin-4 may provide an efficient molecular tool to specifically identify and target biologically aggressive human cancer cells for CPE-specific binding and cytolysis. ...

A proposed mechanism for sorting secretory proteins into granules for release via the regulated secretory pathway in endocrine-neuroendocrine cells involves binding the proteins to a sorting receptor at the trans-Golgi network, followed by budding and granule formation. We have identified such a sorting receptor as membrane-associated carboxypeptidase E (CPE) in pituitary Golgi-enriched and sec...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The identification of plaque characteristics that determine its vulnerability is extremely important. The purpose of this work was to evaluate CPE after administration of contrast material and to assess whether there is a statistical association between CPE and cerebrovascular symptoms. MATERIALS AND METHODS Ninety-seven consecutive patients (69 men, 28 women; mean age,...

Currently there is only limited understanding of the reservoirs for Clostridium perfringens type A food poisoning. A recent survey (Y.-T. Lin and R. Labbe, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 69:1642-1646, 2003) of non-outbreak American retail foods did not identify the presence of a single C. perfringens isolate carrying the enterotoxin gene (cpe) necessary for causing food poisoning. The present study ...

To prevent food-borne bacterial diseases and to trace bacterial contamination events to foods, microbial source tracking (MST) methods provide important epidemiological information. To apply molecular methods to MST, it is necessary not only to amplify bacterial cells to detection limit levels but also to prepare DNA with reduced inhibitory compounds and contamination. Isolates carrying the Clo...

While circadian variation of occurrence of cardiovascular emergencies has been described, it has not been assessed whether fluctuations of gravitational interaction between the Earth and the Moon may induce other types of its variation in time have the similar impact. Therefore, we decided to evaluate whether there is an association between the occurrence of prehospital cardiogenic pulmonary ed...

Despite the promising function of conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs) as an interfacial layer in organic photovoltaics (OPVs), the underlying mechanism of dipole orientation and the electrical characteristics of CPE interlayers remain unclear. Currently, the ionic functionality of CPEs (i.e., whether they are cationic or anionic) is believed to determine the interfacial dipole alignment and the ...