Cholera toxin (CT), a virulence factor elaborated by Vibrio cholerae, is sufficient to induce the severe diarrhea characteristic of cholera. The enzymatic moiety of CT (CtxA) increases cAMP synthesis in intestinal epithelial cells, leading to chloride ion (Cl(-)) efflux through the CFTR Cl(-) channel. To preserve electroneutrality and osmotic balance, sodium ions and water also flow into the in...

The pore-forming toxin listeriolysin O (LLO) is a major virulence factor implicated in escape of Listeria monocytogenes from phagocytic vacuoles. Here we describe the pH-dependence of vacuolar perforation by LLO, using the membrane-impermeant fluorophore 8-hydroxypyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid (HPTS) to monitor the pH and integrity of vacuoles in mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages. Perforatio...

The present study re-examined the involvement of the gustatory thalamus (GT) in the acquisition of drug- and toxin-induced conditioned taste aversions (CTAs) using a standardized procedure involving 15-min taste trials in rats injected with morphine (Experiment 1), lithium chloride (Experiment 2) or amphetamine (Experiment 3). Contrary to previous results, GT lesions did not eliminate drug-indu...

A physician from an outside hospital called our laboratory for help regarding interpretation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) results. She was confused by a report from her laboratory that reported the presence of “calcium oxalate crystals 3 ” upon microscopy examination of a CSF sample (Figure 1). The CSF findings were as follows: protein concentration, 0.9 g/L, (reference interval, 0.15– 0.35 g/L...

Fresh mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) were inoculated in the stem, gill, or cap with Clostridium botulinum spores. They were placed with uninoculated mushrooms in paper board trays, which were then covered and sealed in a polyvinyl chloride stretch film to simulate prepackaged mushrooms available at retail stores. When incubated at 20 C, botulinum toxin could be detected as early as day 3, or 4,...

t-2 toxin, a trichothecene mycotoxin, is considered to be one of the most toxic compounds that are produced by molds, particularly the fusarium species. fusarium species have been recognized as a great agricultural problem. they occur worldwide on a variety of plant hosts and cereal grains. the aim of this study was to investigate t-2 toxin-induced liver injury using in situ perfused rat liver....

fusarium is a fungus that is commonly found as saprophytes with parasitic life on some living organisms. mycoprotein or fungus proteins with physical and chemical features are known as food in recent years. when they are involved in temperature and wet stress, release materials such as mycotoxins or fungus toxins remained in food. zearalenone and dependent compounds have distinct role in many f...

knowing the nucleotide sequence of the cholera toxin operon, we designed oligonucleotide primers for its-pcr amplification from local clinical isolates of v. cholerae. the resulting amplification product was cloned in a common puc18 vector. subsequently, a part of this operon encoding the cholera toxin bsubunit (ctb) was reamplified and cloned between the bamh1 and ecor1 sites of the same vecto...

flushing is a condition with episodic attacks of redness of the skin with a sensation of warmth or burning, this disease causes emotional and functional problems in patients. there is various treatments for this condition; one of them is the use of botulinum toxin-a (bta). in this prospective pilot study we studied the effect of botulinum toxin-a (bta) effect on dlqi of patients with facial flu...

whooping cough (pertussis) is a highly contagious disease of the human respiratory tract, which is caused by bordetella pertussis. reemerge of pertussis in some highly immunized populations and divergency in gene order among several b. pertussis strains promoted this research to study the change of pertussis toxin (pt) and lipopolysacharide levels in response to the different environments. this...