The response to diphtheria toxin of two sensitive cell lines, KB and HeLa, was investigated. Inhibition of the incorporation of radioactively labeled amino acids into protein was the earliest detectable effect of diphtheria toxin. It was observed that, during the period of intoxication, the cell membrane was morphologically intact and retained its semi-permeable character, although it was rende...

In a population-based study in the Netherlands, diphtheria antitoxin antibodies were measured with a toxin-binding inhibition assay in 9, 134 sera from the general population and religious communities refusing vaccination. The Dutch immunization program appears to induce long-term protection against diphtheria. However, a substantial number of adults born before the program was introduced had n...

By conducting a molecular characterization of Corynebacterium diphtheriae strains in Australia, we identified novel sequences, nonfunctional toxin genes, and 5 recent cases of toxigenic cutaneous diphtheria. These findings highlight the importance of extrapharyngeal infections for toxin gene-bearing (functional or not) and non-toxin gene-bearing C. diphtheriae strains. Continued surveillance is...

By extracellular labeling of peptides of intact Corynebacterium diphtheriae, followed by fractionation of the cells and chain completion by isolated polysomes, it is shown that diphtheria toxin is formed and secreted cotranslationally by membrane-bound polysomes; free polysomes from none. Moreover, when the chains on these polysomes were completed in vitro, in the absence of membrane they were ...

It is possible by means of repeated injections of uranium nitrate to produce in the cat a subacute or chronic nephritis which can progress to a fatal termination and show in its course increasing accumulation of non-protein nitrogen in the blood. This nephritis differs only slightly from the spontaneous chronic nephritis of the species. Repeated doses of diphtheria toxin produce a subacute form...

Human antibody to diphtheria toxin was analyzed with an ammonium sulfate radioimmunoassay. In 15 immune sera with titers of between 0.03 and 25 units/ml, the avidity was similar to that of U.S. standard antitoxin. The proportion of the post-immunization anti-diphtheria antibody specific for fragment A was variable, but in the 10 sera tested constituted a substantial fraction of the antibody. Ap...

Hypothalamic neurons that express neuropeptide Y (NPY) and agouti-related protein (AgRP) are thought to be critical regulators of feeding behavior and body weight. To determine whether NPY/AgRP neurons are essential in mice, we targeted the human diphtheria toxin receptor to the Agrp locus, which allows temporally controlled ablation of NPY/AgRP neurons to occur after an injection of diphtheria...

1. Rabbits in which a mild grade of glomerular damage has been produced by small doses of diphtheria toxin develop a severe glomerulonephritis corresponding to the extracapillary form described by Volhard and Fahr after inoculations with sublethal quantities of Bacillus coli. 2. Similar, though not completely identical lesions are produced when diphtheria toxin is followed by intravenous inject...

With the uptake of serum treatment for diphtheria from the end of the 19th century onwards, deaths from the disease fell dramatically, albeit, less dramatically in countries, such as the UK, in which serum treatment had not been adopted wholeheartedly. The development of serum therapy of humans – in a race between the Berlin Institute for Infectious Diseases and Emile Roux and his colleagues at...

Simultaneous transfer of delayed hypersensitivity to diphtheria toxin and to tuberculin has been accomplished in eight consecutive instances in man using extracts from washed leucocytes taken from the peripheral blood of tuberculin-positive, Schick-negative donors who were highly sensitive (i.e., pseudoreactors) to purified diphtheria toxin and toxoid. The leucocyte extracts used for transfer c...