Shiga toxin (Stx), an AB5 toxin, binds specifically to the neutral glycosphingolipid Gb3 at the cell surface before being transported into cells. We here demonstrate that addition of conical lysophospholipids (LPLs) with large head groups inhibit Stx binding to cells whereas LPLs with small head groups do not. Lysophosphatidylinositol (LPI 18:0), the most efficient LPL with the largest head gro...

Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing E. coli (STEC) cause food-borne outbreaks of hemorrhagic colitis. The main virulence factor expressed by STEC, Stx, is an AB5 toxin that has two antigenically distinct forms, Stx1a and Stx2a. Although Stx1a and Stx2a bind to the same receptor, globotriaosylceramide (Gb3), Stx2a is more potent than Stx1a in mice, whereas Stx1a is more cytotoxic than Stx2a in cell cult...

Cholera toxin (CT) is the prototype for the Vibrio cholerae-Escherichia coli family of heat-labile enterotoxins having an AB5 structure. By substituting amino acids in the enzymatic A subunit that are highly conserved in all members of this family, we constructed 23 variants of CT that exhibited decreased or undetectable toxicity and we characterized their biological and biochemical properties....

All rings considered are associative with identity and all occurring modules are unital right modules. We denote by Mod R the category of all R-modules. The spectrum of a ring R is known to be the “set” of isomorphism classes of indecomposable injective right R-modules. When R is right-Noetherian the spectrum describes all injective Rmodules, since each injective module is a direct sum of indec...

Metal hydride (MH) hydrogen storage and compression systems with near-atmospheric H2 suction pressure are necessary for the utilization of low-pressure produced by solid oxide electrolyzers or released as a byproduct chemical industries. Such should provide reasonably high productivity in modes both charge (H2 absorption at PL ≤ 1 atm) discharge desorption PH = 2–5 atm), which implies provision...

The type II secretion system (T2SS) is a large macromolecular complex spanning the inner and outer membranes of many gram-negative bacteria. The T2SS is responsible for the secretion of virulence factors such as cholera toxin (CT) and heat-labile enterotoxin (LT) from Vibrio cholerae and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, respectively. CT and LT are closely related AB5 heterohexamers, composed o...

Hemolytic uremic syndrome, the leading cause of kidney failure in children, often follows infection with enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli and is mediated by the Shiga type toxins, particularly type 2 (Stx2), produced by such strains. The challenge in protecting against this life-threatening syndrome is to stimulate an immune response at the site of infection while also protecting against Shig...

Structural, gaseous phase hydrogen storage, and electrochemical properties of a series of the Ti50Zr1Ni44X5 (X = Ni, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, or Cu) metal hydride alloys were studied. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed the multi-phase nature of all alloys, which were composed of a stoichiometric TiNi matrix, a hyperstoichiometric TiNi minor phase, and a Ti2Ni seconda...

Pathogenesis of cholera diarrhea requires cholera toxin (CT)-mediated adenosine diphosphate (ADP)-ribosylation of stimulatory G protein (Gsα) in enterocytes. CT is an AB5 toxin with an inactive CTA1 domain linked via CTA2 to a pentameric receptor-binding B subunit. Allosterically activated CTA1 fragment in complex with NAD+ and GTP-bound ADP-ribosylation factor 6 (ARF6-GTP) differs conformation...