Programmed necrosis is a mechanism of cell death that has been described for neuronal excitotoxicity and ischemia/reperfusion injury, but has not been extensively studied in the context of exposure to bacterial exotoxins. The alpha-toxin of Clostridium septicum is a beta-barrel pore-forming toxin and a potent cytotoxin; however, the mechanism by which it induces cell death has not been elucidat...

background and objectives: clostridium perfringens is more prevalent type of clostridia genus isolated from the intestinal tract of ostrich ( struthio camelus ). necrotic enteritis (ne) is a potentially fatal gastrointestinal (gi) disease of poultry and other avian species, which produces marked destruction of intestinal lining in digestive tract caused by c. perfringens . pathogenicity and les...

In prokaryotes, cognate toxin-antitoxin pairs have long been known, but no three-dimensional structure has been available for any given complex from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Here we report the crystal structure and activity of a member of the VapBC family of complexes from M. tuberculosis. The toxin VapC-5 is a compact, 150 residues, two domain alpha/beta protein. Bent around the toxin is th...

Recombinant Bacillus subtilis endospores have been used to vaccinate against tetanus and anthrax. In this work, we have developed spores that could be used to vaccinate against Clostridium perfringens alpha toxin and that could be used to protect against gas gangrene in humans and necrotic enteritis in poultry. The primary active agent in both cases is alpha toxin. A carboxy-terminal segment of...

We investigated regulation of the cardiac L-type calcium channel by intracellular ATP and by alpha 1-adrenergic agonism using single adult guinea pig ventricular cells and the whole-cell patch clamp method. Inclusion of 5 mM ATP in the patch clamp pipette prevented calcium current rundown but did not increase the maximal magnitude of the slow inward calcium current (ICa). During beta 1-adrenerg...

Clostridium perfringens type A toxin produced in Jayko & Lichstein medium was subjected to various concentration and purification procedures. The results obtained with 3 different ultrafiltration membranes followed by gel filtration showed that by using Millipore PSED OHV10 and Amicon XM-100 filter membranes in combination, a three-hundred-and-fivefold purification could be achieved as against ...

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay to detect Clostridium perfringens alpha toxin gene (cpa) was used to identify eighty-nine C. perfringens strains obtained from bovine clinical material. The strains were biochemically characterized as C. perfringens. The isolated strains were cultured on plates containing brain heart infusion agar with 5% sheep blood under anaerobic conditions. DNA extrac...

The channel forming alpha-toxin of Staphylococcus aureus (about 50 micrograms/ml) markedly reduces the Ca2+ requirement for dopamine release by the rat pheochromocytoma cell line (PC 12). Maximal secretion by intact cells requires approximately 1 mM Ca2+, whereas release by alpha-toxin-permeabilized cells can already be triggered with microM concentrations of Ca2+. The latter process reaches a ...

clostridium perfringens is a gram-positive, obligate anaerobic bacterium, which is widely distributed in the environment. c. perfringens is subdivided to 5 groups (types a to e), based on its four major toxin (alpha, beta, epsilon and iota). c. perfringens type b beta toxin causes inflammation and bloody necrotic enteritis. type b related enterotoxaemia is a major problem of veterinary sciences...