The chemical nature and the formation of bacterial toxins has been widely discussed. Diphtheria toxin may be regarded as a classical subject. Most of the earlier authors regarded it as a protein or a product derived therefrom. Recently some American authors, Warden, Connell, and Holly, have emphatically declared the toxin to be a "colloidal" mixture of fats and protein. As to the formation of t...

Hybridization probes derived from the A and B subunit genes of the heat-labile enterotoxin (LT) of Escherichia coli were used to analyze DNA from Vibrio cholera strain 569B for cholera toxin gene sequences. Southern blot analysis indicated that the cholera toxin A and B subunit genes were each duplicated in the strain. One of the two toxin subunit gene pairs was cloned as a 5.1-kilobase DNA ins...

Interest in the chemical nature and mode of action of bacterial toxins has been renewed by the simultaneously announced crystallization of botulinal (1) and tetanal toxins (2) and the recent purification of several toxoids (3-5). Of these, crystalline Clostridium botulinurn type A toxin alone has been submitted to an apparently complete elementary and amino acid analysis (6), as well as to prel...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urge physicians to become familiar with chemical and biological weapons. Preparedness among neurologists is especially important because several of these agents affect the nervous system. This article reviews 4 agents that have a history of military or terrorist use: cyanide poisons, organophosphate poisons, botulinum toxin, and anthrax. Cyanide an...

Interest in the chemical nature and mode of action of bacterial toxins has been renewed by the simultaneously announced crystallization of botulinal (1) and tetanal toxins (2) and the recent purification of several toxoids (3-5). Of these, crystalline Clostridium botulinurn type A toxin alone has been submitted to an apparently complete elementary and amino acid analysis (6), as well as to prel...

Susceptibility to protoxin and toxin forms of Cry1Ab and the binding of (125)I-labeled Cry1Ab and Cry1Ac has been examined in three Plodia interpunctella colonies, one susceptible (688(s)) and two resistant (198(r) and Dpl(r)) to Bacillus thuringiensis. Toxicological studies showed that the 198(r) colony was 11-fold more resistant to Cry1Ab protoxin than to Cry1Ab activated toxin, whereas the D...

Toxins are ubiquitous in nature and as such they impact our daily life. Toxins may come from a wide variety of sources and influence a myriad of biological functions. Research on toxins may address their production, structure, chemical properties, biological activity, and economic impact. On the one hand, toxins may be used to decipher biological mechanisms, to favourably influence disease or t...