BACKGROUND The utilization of modern achievements from nanobiotechnology has resulted in novel modalities for renal replacement therapy. For conventional intermittent haemodialysis (HD), sophisticated membranes are currently being manufactured that guarantee selective removal of target toxins. These membranes have a narrow pore-size distribution that is focused around a mean value at the nanome...

Several crystal (Cry) proteins are known to occur as DNA-protein complexes. However, the role of the DNA associated with the activated toxin in the mechanism of action of the Cry toxin has long been ignored. Here, we focused on the DNA-activated Cry toxin complex. Both forms of the Cry8Ca2 and Cry8Ea1 toxins, i.e., with or without bound DNA, were separately obtained. Size-exclusion chromatograp...

A rapid, simplified method for production and purification of tetanus toxin from bacterial extracts was described. The extracts were prepared by stirring young cells (ca. 45-h culture) of Clostridium tetani in 1 M NaCl-0.1 M sodium citrate, pH 7.5, overnight at 0 to 4 degrees C. The toxin was purified by a combination of (i) ammonium sulfate fractionation (0 to 40% saturation), (ii) ultracentri...

1. Animals immunized with the formalinized filtrates of young toxic cultures of B. botulinus produce an antitoxic serum poor in precipitins. 2. Animals immunized with the formalinized filtrates of old and partly autolyzed toxic cultures produce an antitoxic serum containing precipitins. 3. Animals immunized with toxin-free autolyzed bacteria produce a serum free from antitoxin but rich in speci...

The only approved treatment for botulism relies on passive immunity which is mostly based on antibody preparations collected from hyper-immune horses. The IgG Fc fragment is commonly removed from these heterologous preparations to reduce the incidence of hyper-sensitivity reactions. New-generation therapies entering the pipeline are based on a combination of humanized monoclonal antibodies (MAb...

The intact diphtheria toxin molecule, a single polypeptide chain of about 62,000 daltons, has no enzymic activity. However, the transfer in uifro of ADP-ribose from NAD to aminoacyltrensferase II can be catalyzed by any of several fragments of toxin. The smallest active fragment (A, 24,000 daltons) is normally connected to the remainder of the molecule (B, 38,000 daltons) by a peptide bond and ...

Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are widespread in prokaryotes. Among these, the mazEF TA system encodes an endoribonucleolytic toxin, MazF, that inhibits growth by sequence-specific cleavage of single-stranded RNA. Defining the physiological targets of a MazF toxin first requires the identification of its cleavage specificity, yet the current toolkit is antiquated and limited. We describe a rapid ...

The history of liver support devices is traced from early attempts with dialysis based on the known dialysability of ammonia--the major identified toxin in liver failure--and exchange transfusion with removal of protein-bound toxins, to the later techniques based on whole organ perfusion in extracorporeal circuits. Perfusion through charcoal as an adsorbent represented a major advance and remai...

Glycosylphosphatidylinositols (GPIs) are ubiquitous glycolipids in eukaryotes. In the protozoan Leishmania major, GPIs occur "free" or covalently linked to proteins (e.g., gp63) and polysaccharides. While some free GPIs are detected on the plasma membrane, specific sites where GPIs accumulate intracellularly are unknown in most cells, although the glycolipids are synthesized within the secretor...