The action of a number of toxins used in the formation of immunotoxins was studied in polarized cells. Diphtheria toxin inhibited protein synthesis most efficiently when added to the basolateral side of the kidney cells, MDCK-I, MDBK and Pt K2, and the colon carcinoma cell Caco-2. Similar findings were made with Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A in MDCK-I, Pt K2, and Caco-2 cells, and with mode...

Abrin A-chain (ABRA) inhibits protein synthesis by its N-glycosidase activity as well as induces apoptosis, but the molecular mechanism of ABRA-induced cell death has been obscure. Using an ABRA mutant that lacks N-glycosidase activity as bait in a yeast two-hybrid system, a 30-kDa antioxidant protein-1 (AOP-1) was found to be an ABRA(E164Q)-interacting protein. The interaction was further conf...

It has been known that VEGF(121) isoform can serve as a carrier of therapeutic agents targeting tumor endothelial cells. We designed and constructed synthetic cDNA that encodes a chimeric protein comprising abrin-a (ABRaA) toxin A-chain and human VEGF(121). Expression of the ABRaA-VEGF(121) chimeric protein was carried out in E. coli strain BL21(DE3). ABRaA-VEGF(121) preparations were isolated ...

Biological toxins are a heterogeneous group of compounds that share commonalities with biological and chemical agents. Among them, protein toxins represent a considerable, diverse set. They cover a broad range of molecular weights from less than 1000 Da to more than 150 kDa. This review aims to compare conventional detection methods of protein toxins such as in vitro bioassays with proteomic me...