Alpha-hemolysin (Hly) is a common exotoxin produced by Escherichia coli that enhances virulence in a number of clinical infections. The addition of hemolysin production to laboratory bacterial strains is known to increase the lethality of E. coli peritonitis. However, the mechanisms involved have not been determined and the contribution of hemolysin to the alterations in the host intraperitonea...

Hemolysins purified from non-O1 Vibrio cholerae (non-O1 hemolysin) and a Vibrio cholerae O1, biotype El Tor (El Tor hemolysin) were investigated for their homology. The hemolysins were isolated from the culture supernatant fluids by ammonium sulfate precipitation and gel filtration on Sephadex G-100 columns. The purified hemolysins gave single bands with an identical mobility on conventional po...

alpha-Hemolysin of Staphylococcus aureus is a self-assembling toxin that forms a water-filled transmembrane channel upon oligomerization in a lipid membrane. Apart from being one of the best-studied toxins of bacterial origin, alpha-hemolysin is the principal component in several biotechnological applications, including systems for controlled delivery of small solutes across lipid membranes, st...

Haemophilus ducreyi makes cytolethal distending toxin (CDT) and hemolysin. In a previous human challenge trial, an isogenic hemolysin-deficient mutant caused pustules with a rate similar to that of its parent. To test whether CDT was required for pustule formation, six human subjects were inoculated with a CDT mutant and parent at multiple sites. The pustule formation rates were similar at both...

1. The presence of a natural anti-human hemolysin, only active against Group I and Group II cells, was demonstrated in over 50 guinea pigs, obtained from different sections of the surrounding country. It was shown that, in a majority of the sera tested, this hemolysin would be a contributing factor to an excess of amboceptor in the reaction, in the quantities of complement used in an antihuman ...

The ability of intracellular pathogens to sense and adapt to the hostile environment of the host is an important factor governing virulence. We have sequenced the operon encoding the major heat shock proteins GroES and GroEL in the gram-positive food-borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. The operon has a conserved orientation in the order groES groEL. Upstream of groES and in the opposite orie...

BACKGROUND Extracellular expression of proteins has an absolute advantage in a large-scale industrial production. In our previous study, Thermobifida fusca cutinase, an enzyme mainly utilized in textile industry, was expressed via type II secretory system in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3), and it was found that parts of the expressed protein was accumulated in the periplasmic space. Due to the fact...

Two hemolytic proteins (hemolysin I and II) with isoelectric points of 5.5 and 4.3 were purified by isoelectric focusing from the culture supernatant fluid of Aeromonas hydrophila. The purified hemolysins were unstable after dialysis and upon heating at 37 C and were inactivated by proteolytic enzymes. The two hemolysins were lethal for mice in a dose of 10 mug (hemolysin I) and 3 mug (hemolysi...

This study was undertaken to identify an opsonin in the coelomic fluid of Strongylocentrotus nudus by separating several humoral defense factors using galactose-affinity chromatography. A galactose-binding-protein had no opsonic activity against rabbit and sheep erythrocytes, whereas the galactose-unadsorbed fraction and hemolysin fraction separated by affinity adsorption onto formaldehyde-fixe...

The potential virulence factors of enterococci include production of enterococcal surface protein (Esp), gelatinase, and hemolysin. Gelatinase- and hemolysin-producing strains of Enterococcus faecalis have been shown to be virulent in animal models of enterococcal infections. Esp production has been shown to enhance the persistence of E. faecalis in the urinary bladder. We determined the presen...