Importance of Toxin A, Toxin B, and CDT in virulence of an epidemic Clostridium difficile strain

Sarah Kuehne, Mark M Collery, Michelle L Kelly, Stephen T Cartman, Alan Cockayne, Nigel P Minton

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

136 Citations (Scopus)
143 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Clostridium difficile infection is the main cause of healthcare-acquired diarrhea in the developed world. In addition to the main virulence factors toxin A and B, epidemic, PCR Ribotype 027 strains, such as R20291, produce a third toxin, CDT. To develop effective medical countermeasures, it is important to understand the importance of each toxin. Accordingly, we created all possible combinations of isogenic toxin mutants of R20291 and assessed their virulence. We demonstrated that either toxin A or toxin B alone can cause fulminant disease in the hamster infection model and present tantalizing data that C. difficile toxin may also contribute to virulence.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)83-86
Number of pages4
JournalThe Journal of Infectious Diseases
Volume209
Issue number1
Early online date8 Aug 2013
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2014

Keywords

  • ADP Ribose Transferases
  • Animals
  • Bacterial Proteins
  • Bacterial Toxins
  • Cell Death
  • Clostridium Infections
  • Clostridium difficile
  • Cricetinae
  • Enterotoxins
  • Female
  • HT29 Cells
  • Humans
  • Mesocricetus
  • Virulence
  • Journal Article
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Clostridium difficile infection
  • TcdA
  • TcdB
  • pathogenesis
  • CDT

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