Bacterial Toxins

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  Subject Areas on Research

  • A comparison of non-toxin vaccine adjuvants for their ability to enhance the immunogenicity of nasally-administered anthrax recombinant protective antigen. 
  • Antagonism of toxigenic Clostridium difficile by nontoxigenic C. difficile. 
  • Bacterial surface association of heat-labile enterotoxin through lipopolysaccharide after secretion via the general secretory pathway. 
  • Biogenesis, cellular localization, and functional activation of the heat-stable enterotoxin receptor (guanylyl cyclase C). 
  • Cell biology. Caveolae--not just craters in the cellular landscape. 
  • Cellular cytoskeleton dynamics modulates non-viral gene delivery through RhoGTPases. 
  • Characterization of alpha-toxin hla gene variants, alpha-toxin expression levels, and levels of antibody to alpha-toxin in hemodialysis and postsurgical patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia. 
  • Chemoattractant receptor-induced hydrolysis of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate in human polymorphonuclear leukocyte membranes. Requirement for a guanine nucleotide regulatory protein. 
  • Circulating PIG-A mutant T lymphocytes in healthy adults and patients with bone marrow failure syndromes. 
  • Clinical MRSA isolates from skin and soft tissue infections show increased in vitro production of phenol soluble modulins. 
  • Clostridial toxins: sensing a target in a hostile gut environment. 
  • Clostridium difficile associated with pseudomembranous colitis. Occurrence in a 12-week-old infant without prior antibiotic therapy. 
  • Clostridium difficile infection in obstetric and gynecologic patients. 
  • Comparison of seven techniques for typing international epidemic strains of Clostridium difficile: restriction endonuclease analysis, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, PCR-ribotyping, multilocus sequence typing, multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis, amplified fragment length polymorphism, and surface layer protein A gene sequence typing. 
  • Comparison of two rapid assays for Clostridium difficile Common antigen and a C difficile toxin A/B assay with the cell culture neutralization assay. 
  • Complex Antigens Drive Permissive Clonal Selection in Germinal Centers. 
  • Context-dependent activation kinetics elicited by soluble versus outer membrane vesicle-associated heat-labile enterotoxin. 
  • Control of basement membrane remodeling and epithelial branching morphogenesis in embryonic lung by Rho and cytoskeletal tension. 
  • Control of embryonic lung branching morphogenesis by the Rho activator, cytotoxic necrotizing factor 1. 
  • Cytokines: the future of intranasal vaccine adjuvants. 
  • Derivatives of plant phenolic compound affect the type III secretion system of Pseudomonas aeruginosa via a GacS-GacA two-component signal transduction system. 
  • Detection of Escherichia coli enterotoxins in stools. 
  • Development of a novel adjuvanted nasal vaccine: C48/80 associated with chitosan nanoparticles as a path to enhance mucosal immunity. 
  • Diarrhea, demography and cell signaling: lessons from microbial toxins. 
  • Differential actions of PAR2 and PAR1 in stimulating human endothelial cell exocytosis and permeability: the role of Rho-GTPases. 
  • Effect of different classes of inhibitors on DNA gyrase from Mycobacterium smegmatis. 
  • Effect of particulate adjuvant on the anthrax protective antigen dose required for effective nasal vaccination. 
  • Effect of pertussis toxin on alpha 2-adrenoceptors: decreased formation of the high-affinity state for agonists. 
  • Effective induction of protective systemic immunity with nasally administered vaccines adjuvanted with IL-1. 
  • Effects of interleukin-1 on calcium signaling and the increase of filamentous actin in isolated and in situ articular chondrocytes. 
  • Efficacy of compartmental administration of immunotoxin LMB-1 (B3-LysPE38) in a rat model of carcinomatous meningitis. 
  • Efficacy of telavancin in patients with specific types of complicated skin and skin structure infections. 
  • Engineering of obligate intracellular bacteria: progress, challenges and paradigms. 
  • Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli secretes active heat-labile enterotoxin via outer membrane vesicles. 
  • Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli vesicles target toxin delivery into mammalian cells. 
  • Epitope maps of the Escherichia coli heat-labile toxin B subunit for development of a synthetic oral vaccine. 
  • Evaluation of repeat Clostridium difficile enzyme immunoassay testing. 
  • Extrinsic surgical denervation inhibits Clostridium difficile toxin A-induced enteritis in rats. 
  • Fecal leukocytes in stool specimens submitted for Clostridium difficile toxin assay. 
  • Heat-labile enterotoxin: beyond G(m1) binding. 
  • Host S-nitrosylation inhibits clostridial small molecule-activated glucosylating toxins. 
  • Identification and characterization of an RTX toxin in the emerging pathogen Kingella kingae. 
  • Immunotoxins containing Pseudomonas exotoxin that target LeY damage human endothelial cells in an antibody-specific mode: relevance to vascular leak syndrome. 
  • Immunotoxins with increased activity against epidermal growth factor receptor vIII-expressing cells produced by antibody phage display. 
  • Improved antitumor activity of a recombinant anti-Lewis(y) immunotoxin not requiring proteolytic activation. 
  • In vitro and in vivo characterization of anthrax anti-protective antigen and anti-lethal factor monoclonal antibodies after passive transfer in a mouse lethal toxin challenge model to define correlates of immunity. 
  • Increased in vitro phenol-soluble modulin production is associated with soft tissue infection source in clinical isolates of methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus. 
  • Inhibition of Clostridium difficile toxin A-induced colitis in rats by APAZA. 
  • Interaction of the Shiga-like toxin type 1 B-subunit with its carbohydrate receptor. 
  • Ligation of low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein with antibodies elevates intracellular calcium and inositol 1,4, 5-trisphosphate in macrophages. 
  • Lipid diversity among botulinum neurotoxin-producing clostridia. 
  • Lipopolysaccharide 3-deoxy-D-manno-octulosonic acid (Kdo) core determines bacterial association of secreted toxins. 
  • Mast cell activators: a new class of highly effective vaccine adjuvants. 
  • Maximal adjuvant activity of nasally delivered IL-1α requires adjuvant-responsive CD11c(+) cells and does not correlate with adjuvant-induced in vivo cytokine production. 
  • Mucosal and systemic anti-HIV responses in rhesus macaques following combinations of intranasal and parenteral immunizations. 
  • Novel strategies to augment genetically delivered immunotoxin molecular therapy for cancer therapy. 
  • Panton-Valentine leukocidin is not the primary determinant of outcome for Staphylococcus aureus skin infections: evaluation from the CANVAS studies. 
  • Part III. Analysis of data gaps pertaining to enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli infections in low and medium human development index countries, 1984-2005. 
  • Persistence of zinc-binding bacterial superantigens at the surface of antigen-presenting cells contributes to the extreme potency of these superantigens as T-cell activators. 
  • Phenylalanine 30 plays an important role in receptor binding of verotoxin-1. 
  • Potential role for a guanine nucleotide regulatory protein in chemoattractant receptor mediated polyphosphoinositide metabolism, Ca++ mobilization and cellular responses by leukocytes. 
  • Presence of genes encoding panton-valentine leukocidin is not the primary determinant of outcome in patients with hospital-acquired pneumonia due to Staphylococcus aureus. 
  • Presence of genes encoding the panton-valentine leukocidin exotoxin is not the primary determinant of outcome in patients with complicated skin and skin structure infections due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: results of a multinational trial. 
  • Production and quality control assessment of a GLP-grade immunotoxin, D2C7-(scdsFv)-PE38KDEL, for a phase I/II clinical trial. 
  • Pseudomonas exotoxin A mutants. Replacement of surface exposed residues in domain II with cysteine residues that can be modified with polyethylene glycol in a site-specific manner. 
  • Receptor-associated protein binding blocks ubiquitinylation of the low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein. 
  • Recombinant anti-podoplanin (NZ-1) immunotoxin for the treatment of malignant brain tumors. 
  • Recombinant immunotoxin containing a disulfide-stabilized Fv directed at erbB2 that does not require proteolytic activation. 
  • Regional treatment of epidermal growth factor receptor vIII-expressing neoplastic meningitis with a single-chain immunotoxin, MR-1. 
  • Regulation of the Escherichia coli HipBA toxin-antitoxin system by proteolysis. 
  • Relationship between enterotoxin production and serotype in enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli. 
  • Residues of heat-labile enterotoxin involved in bacterial cell surface binding. 
  • Resistance of human alveolar macrophages to Bacillus anthracis lethal toxin. 
  • Risk factors for and estimated incidence of community-associated Clostridium difficile infection, North Carolina, USA. 
  • Role of platelet activating factor in the inflammatory and secretory effects of Clostridium difficile toxin A. 
  • Secretion of virulence determinants by the general secretory pathway in gram-negative pathogens: an evolving story. 
  • Serologic differentiation between antitoxin responses to infection with Vibrio cholerae and enterotoxin-producing Escherichia coli. 
  • Specificity of the type II secretion systems of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli and Vibrio cholerae for heat-labile enterotoxin and cholera toxin. 
  • Structure of FitAB from Neisseria gonorrhoeae bound to DNA reveals a tetramer of toxin-antitoxin heterodimers containing pin domains and ribbon-helix-helix motifs. 
  • Substance P activation of enteric neurons in response to intraluminal Clostridium difficile toxin A in the rat ileum. 
  • Surface plasmon resonance measurements of plasma antibody avidity during primary and secondary responses to anthrax protective antigen. 
  • The GNA13-RhoA signaling axis suppresses expression of tumor protective Kallikreins. 
  • The capsaicin VR1 receptor mediates substance P release in toxin A-induced enteritis in rats. 
  • The complete nucleotide sequence of the Vibrio harveyi bacteriophage VHML. 
  • The mast cell activator compound 48/80 is safe and effective when used as an adjuvant for intradermal immunization with Bacillus anthracis protective antigen. 
  • The role of leukotriene B4 in Clostridium difficile toxin A-induced ileitis in rats. 
  • Yield of stool culture with isolate toxin testing versus a two-step algorithm including stool toxin testing for detection of toxigenic Clostridium difficile. 
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  Keywords of People

  • Kuehn, Margarethe Joanna, Associate Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Genetics and Microbiology