Bacterial pore-forming toxins: The (w)hole story?

Cellular Entry of Binary and Pore-Forming Bacterial Toxins

This Special Issue of Toxins, entitled “Cellular Entry of Binary and Pore-Forming Bacterial Toxins,” gives a sense of the recent advances in characterizing the functional and structural aspects of this broad scientific problem that goes beyond the classical field of toxinology and microbiology and spills into the general areas of biochemistry, biophysics, and molecular and cell biology. The con...

Pore-Forming Toxins Induce Macrophage Necroptosis during Acute Bacterial Pneumonia

Necroptosis is a highly pro-inflammatory mode of cell death regulated by RIP (or RIPK)1 and RIP3 kinases and mediated by the effector MLKL. We report that diverse bacterial pathogens that produce a pore-forming toxin (PFT) induce necroptosis of macrophages and this can be blocked for protection against Serratia marcescens hemorrhagic pneumonia. Following challenge with S. marcescens, Staphyloco...

Role of pore-forming toxins in bacterial infectious diseases.

Pore-forming toxins (PFTs) are the most common bacterial cytotoxic proteins and are required for virulence in a large number of important pathogens, including Streptococcus pneumoniae, group A and B streptococci, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. PFTs generally disrupt host cell membranes, but they can have additional effects independent of pore formation....

Enhanced SnapShot: Pore-Forming Toxins

Bacterial two-component and hetero-heptameric pore-forming cytolytic toxins: structures, pore-forming mechanism, and organization of the genes.

Staphylococcal gamma-hemolysin (Hlg), leukocidin (Luk), and Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) are two-component and hetero-oligomeric pore-forming cytolytic toxins (or cytolysin), that were first identified in bacteria. No information on the existence of hetero-oligomeric pore-forming cytolytic toxins in bacteria except for staphylococcal strains is available so far. Hlg (Hlg1 of 34 kDa/Hlg2 of...