We report the first Australian case of treatment of infant botulism with a human botulinum antitoxin developed in the United States by the California Department of Public Health. Our patient's clinical improvement was rapid, and although the product is expensive, cost-analysis supports the economical viability of its use. In future cases of suspected infant botulism, we recommend that Australia...

There are errors in the lower panels of Fig 4A and Fig 4D of the published article. Please see the correct Fig 4 here. The original images for all of the lower panels in Fig 4 are included as Supporting Information files to this correction. The authors apologize for the errors. open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricte...

The question of the nature of antihormones and of the mechanism of the hormone-antihormone reaction has been a point of controversy for many years. The impetus for the numerous investigations carried on in recent years was provided by Collip who postulated the antihormone theory as a result of his experiments in 1934 and 1935. 4 Prior to this time, many workers were fully aware of the fact that...

Plasmid toxins CcdB and ParE are part of addiction systems promoting plasmid maintenance. Both target host DNA gyrase, as do quinolones and plasmid-determined Qnr proteins that protect gyrase from quinolone inhibition. We cloned qnrB4, qnrS1, ccdB, parE, and the antitoxin-encoding genes ccdA and parD on compatible plasmids and tested them in combination. CcdB and ParE had no specific effect on ...

Mouse thymocytes were used to compare mechanisms by which Vibrio cholerae and heat-labile Escherichia coli enterotoxins activate the adenylate cyclase-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (AMP) system. Both enterotoxins had their time-delayed increase in cyclic AMP neutralized by antisera to V. cholerae or E. coli enterotoxin, blocked by low concentrations of ganglioside G(M1), and destroyed by prior...

Bacterial toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems, in which a labile antitoxin binds and inhibits the toxin, can promote adaptation and persistence by modulating bacterial growth in response to stress. Some atypical TA systems, known as tripartite toxin-antitoxin-chaperone (TAC) modules, include a molecular chaperone that facilitates folding and protects the antitoxin from degradation. Here we use a TAC m...

Detection and evaluation of the effects of treatments was given impetus in the late 1800s by the arrival of some effective medical treatments, such as salicylic medicines, phenacetin, and diphtheria antitoxins (Morse, 1878; Roux et al., 1894; Sørensen, 1896; Fibiger, 1898; Haas, 1983; Hróbjartsson et al., 1998; Lafont, 2007). One remarkable commentator during this important period was the Danis...

the discovery of antitoxins (von Behring and Kitasato), the standardization of toxins and anti-toxins, the distinction between active and passive immunization (Ehrlich), bacteriolysis (Pfeiffer), haemolysis, agglutination of blood corpuscles as a diagnostic test, the opsonic index, and prophylaxis and treatment of many diseases by vaccines. In certain diseases, for example, cerebro-spinal menin...

Resistance of pathogens to antimicrobial therapeutics has become a widespread problem. Resistance can emerge naturally, but it can also be engineered intentionally, which is an important consideration in designing therapeutics for bioterrorism agents. Blocking host receptors used by pathogens represents a powerful strategy to overcome this problem, because extensive alterations to the pathogen ...