A variant enterotoxin gene, referred to as sezA+, has been identified. Staphylococcus aureus FRI1106, a staphylococcal enterotoxin type D producer (Sed+), contained HindIII fragments of 3.8 and 9.4 kilobase pairs (kbp) that hybridized in Southern blot analysis to a probe containing only staphylococcal enterotoxin type A structural gene sequences. Presumably, probe A-624 hybridized to the 9.4-kb...

A chromatofocusing procedure for the purification of staphylococcal enterotoxin D was developed. The purification included the removal of the toxic protein from culture supernatant fluids of Staphylococcus aureus 1151m by batch adsorption with CG-50 resin, chromatofocusing on Polybuffer Exchanger 94, and gel permeation chromatography on Sephacryl S-200. The purity of the staphylococcal enteroto...

BACKGROUND Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common chronic inflammatory disease of unknown etiology. In this regard, the role of bacterial superantigens (as an effective agent) were considered. OBJECTIVES This study aimed to assess staphylococcal enterotoxin E in the blood of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. PATIENTS AND METHODS A total of 83 blood samples of patients with RA were s...

We report that a peptide from the B chain of insulin, B(10-30), binds with high affinity to multiple class II proteins, including IAb,d,k, IEd,k, and DR1. The ability of B(10-30) to inhibit the binding of other peptide antigens to class II does not correlate with its affinity for class II. B(10-30) only weakly inhibits the binding of antigenic peptides. Conversely, peptides with high affinity f...