Shiga toxin (Stx) follows a complex intracellular pathway in order to kill susceptible cells. After binding to cell surface glycolipids, the toxin is internalized and trafficked in retrograde fashion to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). From the ER lumen, the toxin must gain access to the cytoplasm, where it enzymatically inactivates the 28S rRNA, inhibiting protein synthesis. The host molecules ...

Shiga toxins (Stxs) produced by Shiga toxin-producing bacteria Shigella dysenteriae serotype 1 and select serotypes of Escherichia coli are the most potent known virulence factors in the pathogenesis of hemorrhagic colitis progressing to potentially fatal systemic complications such as acute renal failure, blindness and neurological abnormalities. Although numerous studies have defined apoptoti...

BACKGROUND Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) are a group of common and potentially deadly intestinal pathogens expressing Shiga toxin (Stx) as a primary virulence factor. Of the two types of Stx, Stx2 is responsible for more severe symptoms during infection, while Stx1 is almost identical to the Shiga toxin from Shigella dysenteriae, a ubiquitous pathogen in developing countries. Although an...

A triplex PCR method was developed to simultaneously amplify a heat-labile toxin sequence (LT) of 258 bp, a shiga-like toxin I sequence (SLT I) of 130 bp, and a shiga-like toxin II sequence (SLT II) of 346 bp from toxigenic strains of Escherichia coli. This method was used to screen 377 environmental E. coli isolates from marine waters or estuaries located in Southern California and North Carol...

Out of 68 Escherichia coli O157 field isolates tested in vitro for Shiga toxin (Stx) 2 production, 12 (17.6%) produced no or a limited amount of Stx2 (Stx 2 non- or low-producing strain; TNLP) even though all 68 possessed the stx(2) gene. The remaining 56 were Stx2 high-producing strains. The 12 TNLPs carried the q21 gene allele, which encodes a transcription antiterminator Q protein and is hig...

Hemolytic-uremic syndrome, the main cause of acute renal failure in early childhood, is caused primarily by intestinal infections from some Escherichia coli strains that produce Shiga toxins. The toxins released in the gut are targeted to renal endothelium after binding to polymorphonuclear leukocytes. The presence of Shiga toxins in the feces and the circulating neutrophils of 20 children with...

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) can cause central nervous system (CNS) damage resulting in paralysis, seizures, and coma. The key STEC virulence factors associated with systemic illness resulting in CNS impairment are Shiga toxins (Stx). While neurons express the Stx receptor globotriaosylceramide (Gb3) in vivo, direct toxicity to neurons by Stx has not been studied. We used murin...

To the Editor: In 2011, enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) O104:H4 strains that produce Shiga toxins (EAEC-STEC) caused an outbreak of hemorrhagic disease affecting nearly 4,000 patients in Europe (1). During 2001–2013, several countries reported infections caused by EAEC O104:H4 and EAEC-STEC O104:H4 strains (1–9). Genomic analysis of EAEC and EAEC-STEC O104:H4 strains revealed high sim...

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is responsible for several food-borne outbreaks worldwide. In this study, tissue samples of finfish (tilapia, n = 100) and (mullet, 100), twenty human hand swabs from fish sellers fishermen were tested bacteriologically STEC presence. Isolates their antibiotic susceptibility examined the presence eaeA,stx1, stx2 genes. E. identified tissues (36.5% 1...

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) bacteria are zoonotic pathogens. We report here the high-quality complete genome sequences of three STEC O177:H- (fliCH25) strains, SMN152SH1, SMN013SH2, and SMN197SH3. The assembled genomes consisted of one optical map-verified circular chromosome for each strain, plus two plasmids for SMN013SH2 and three plasmids for SMN152SH1 and SMN197SH3, respe...