Title
Clostridium perfringens epsilon toxin: The third most potent bacterial toxin known
Date Issued
01 November 2014
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
review
Author(s)
Universidad Federal de Minas Gerais
Abstract
Epsilon toxin (ETX) is produced by Clostridium perfringens type B and D strains and causes enterotoxemia, a highly lethal disease with major impacts on the farming of domestic ruminants, particularly sheep. ETX belongs to the aerolysin-like pore-forming toxin family. Although ETX has striking similarities to other toxins in this family, ETX is often more potent, with an LD50 of 100ng/kg in mice. Due to this high potency, ETX is considered as a potential bioterrorism agent and has been classified as a category B biological agent by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States. The protoxin is converted to an active toxin through proteolytic cleavage performed by specific proteases. ETX is absorbed and acts locally in the intestines then subsequently binds to and causes lesions in other organs, including the kidneys, lungs and brain. The importance of this toxin for veterinary medicine and its possible use as a biological weapon have drawn the attention of researchers and have led to a large number of studies investigating ETX. The aim of the present work is to review the existing knowledge on ETX from C.perfringens type B and D.
Start page
102
End page
107
Volume
30
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Toxicología
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84907549898
PubMed ID
Source
Anaerobe
ISSN of the container
10759964
Sponsor(s)
Funding text
This work was supported by Fapemig ( APQ-01620-12 ), CAPES , CNPq and PRPq-UFMG .
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus