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How botulism-causing toxin enters bloodstream

Date:
June 19, 2014
Source:
University of California - Irvine
Summary:
The mechanism by which bacterial toxins that cause food-borne botulism are absorbed through the intestinal lining and into the bloodstream has been discovered by researchers. Their study points to new approaches to blocking this poisonous substance. Botulism is a rare and often fatal paralytic illness due to a neurotoxin produced by Clostridium botulinum bacteria, which can appear in rotted, uncooked foods and in soil.
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UC Irvine School of Medicine researchers have discovered the mechanism by which bacterial toxins that cause food-borne botulism are absorbed through the intestinal lining and into the bloodstream. Their study, which appears in the June 20 issue of Science, points to new approaches to blocking this poisonous substance.

Botulism is a rare and often fatal paralytic illness due to a neurotoxin produced by Clostridium botulinum bacteria, which can appear in rotted, uncooked foods and in soil. Listed as a Tier 1 agent by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, the botulinum toxin is also a potential biological weapon.

Using a crystal structure of a complex protein compound of botulinum neurotoxin, Rongsheng Jin, associate professor of physiology & biophysics at UC Irvine, and collaborators found that these compounds -- called clostridial hemagglutinin (HA) -- bind with epithelial cell proteins in the intestines of patients, which initiates a process that disrupts the close intercellular seals so that the complex toxin molecules can slip through the epithelial barrier.

"Normally, botulinum neurotoxin molecules are too large to break through this tight junction of epithelial cells," Jin said. "By identifying this novel process by which the toxin compound manages to open the door from inside, we can better understand how to seek new methods to prevent these deadly toxins from entering the bloodstream."

In further tests, he and his colleagues designed a mutated version of the botulism compound, based on the novel crystal structure, in which HA would not bind with the epithelial cell protein E-cadherin.

Remarkably, even though this lab-made toxin compound contains the fully active live toxin molecule, it was not orally toxic when tested on mice because the mutated HA cannot break up the intercellular seals and, therefore, the toxin compound cannot be absorbed through the epithelial layer.

Jin said this approach could lead to the identification of small molecules able to stop HA from binding with epithelial cell proteins, thus preventing the toxin invasion.


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Materials provided by University of California - Irvine. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. K. Lee, X. Zhong, S. Gu, A. M. Kruel, M. B. Dorner, K. Perry, A. Rummel, M. Dong, R. Jin. Molecular basis for disruption of E-cadherin adhesion by botulinum neurotoxin A complex. Science, 2014; 344 (6190): 1405 DOI: 10.1126/science.1253823

Cite This Page:

University of California - Irvine. "How botulism-causing toxin enters bloodstream." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 19 June 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140619142210.htm>.
University of California - Irvine. (2014, June 19). How botulism-causing toxin enters bloodstream. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 9, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140619142210.htm
University of California - Irvine. "How botulism-causing toxin enters bloodstream." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140619142210.htm (accessed October 9, 2024).

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