In recent times, a number of studies have provided evidence that biotoxins present great potential as antitumor agents, such as snake venom, bee venom, some bacteria toxins and plant toxins, and thus could be used as chemotherapeutic agents against tumors. The biodiversity of venoms and toxins make them a unique source from which novel anticancer agent may be developed. Biotoxins, also known as...

The toxins produced by Clostridium difficile share several functional properties with other bacterial toxins, like the heat-labile enterotoxin of Escherichia coli and cholera toxin. However, functional and structural differences also exist. Like cholera toxin, their main target is the disruption of the microfilaments in the cell. However, since these effects are not reversible, as found with ch...

The genomic action of calcitriol (1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D3) is mediated through the interaction of the calcitriol receptor (VDR) with vitamin D response elements (VDREs). Although renal failure is associated with resistance to the action of calcitriol, the mechanism of this resistance is not well understood. Therefore, we used the electrophoretic mobility shift assay to compare the ability of ...

Large bacterial protein toxins autotranslocate functional effector domains to the eukaryotic cell cytosol, resulting in alterations to cellular functions that ultimately benefit the infecting pathogen. Among these toxins, the clostridial glucosylating toxins (CGTs) produced by Gram-positive bacteria and the multifunctional-autoprocessing RTX (MARTX) toxins of Gram-negative bacteria have distinc...

Targeted toxins, consisting of tumor-selective ligands coupled to polypeptide toxins, represent a new class of cancer therapeutics that kills malignant cells by inactivating cytosolic protein synthesis and inducing apoptosis. A number of these molecules have been produced under good manufacturing practice conditions and given systemically to patients with a variety of neoplasms. The promising r...

Many airborne toxins produce local noxious effects on the airways and lungs as irritants. The respiratory tract can also serve as a portal of entry for systemic poisons as simple or systemic asphyxiants. Inhalational exposure can be covert and indolent (as in occupational exposure to asbestos or urban exposure to photochemical smog) or fulminant and obvious. The circumstances and location of th...

Stacked GM crops expressing up to six Cry toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are today replacing the formerly grown single-transgene GM crop varieties. Stacking of multiple Cry toxins not only increase the environmental load of toxins but also raise the question on how possible interactions of the toxins can be assessed for risk assessment, which is mandatory for GM crops. However, no oper...

Bacillus thuringiensis toxins act by binding to specific target sites in the insect midgut epithelial membrane. The best-known mechanism of resistance to B. thuringiensis toxins is reduced binding to target sites. Because alteration of a binding site shared by several toxins may cause resistance to all of them, knowledge of which toxins share binding sites is useful for predicting cross-resista...

Targeted toxins, also known as immunotoxins or cytotoxins, are recombinant molecules that specifically bind to cell surface receptors that are overexpressed in cancer and the toxin component kills the cell. These recombinant proteins consist of a specific antibody or ligand coupled to a protein toxin. The targeted toxins bind to a surface antigen or receptor overexpressed in tumors, such as the...