Clostridium sordellii

Important members of this toxin family are Clostridium difficile toxins A and B, which are implicated in antibiotics-associated diarrhea and pseudomembranous colitis. The large clostridial cytotoxins are single-chain toxins with molecular masses of 250-308 kDa. The enzyme domain is located at the N terminus. The toxins are taken up from an acidic endosomal compartment. They glucosylate RhoA at Thr37 also, Rac and Cdc42 are substrates. Other members of this toxin family such as Clostridium sordellii lethal toxin possess a different substrate specificity and modify Rac but not Rho. In addition, Ras subfamily proteins (e.g., Ras, Ral, and Rap) are modified. As for C3, they are widely used as tools to study Rho functions [2] [4]. 

There were four deaths in previously healthy women due to endometritis and toxic shock syndrome within 1 week after medically induced abortions with oral mifepristone 200 mg and vaginal misoprostol 800 micrograms in two cases Clostridium sordellii was found (19). Another similar case was reported in Canada in 2001. Endometritis and toxic shock syndrome associated with C. sordellii are rare. Of 10 cases identified by authors in the previous literature, eight occurred after the delivery of live-born infants, one after a medical abortion, and one was not associated with pregnancy. The cases produced an FDA alert with a Dear Health Care Provider letter from the manufacturer and publication of a Dispatch in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (20). 

Fischer M, Bhatnagar J, Guarner J, Reagan S, Hacker JK, Van Meter SH, Poukens V, Whiteman DB, Iton A, Cheung M, Dassey DE, Shieh WJ, Zaki SR. Fatal toxic shock syndrome associated with Clostridium sordellii after medical abortion. N Engl J Med 2005 353(22) 2352-60. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Clostridium sordellii toxic shock syndrome after medical abortion with mifepristone and intravaginal misoprostol—United States and Canada, 2001-2005. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkl Rep 2005 54 724. 

Clostridium difficile can be cultured from the stool, and toxins A and B can be assessed by different techniques (116). The most accurate method is still a cytotoxin tissue culture assay. This detects the cytopathic effect of cytotoxin B, which can be neutralized by Clostridium sordellii antitoxin, but it takes 24 8 hours to show a result. Alternative tests that produce faster results have been developed. A latex agglutination test lacks sensitivity and specificity, and does not distinguish toxigenic from non-toxigenic strains. An enzyme immunoassay for toxin A may be an acceptable alternative to the cell cytotoxin assay and the results are rapidly available. A dot immunobinding assay has not yet been extensively studied (164). 

Chaves Olarte E, Florin I, Boquet P, et al. (1996) UDP-glucose deficiency in a mutant cell line protects against glucosyltransferase toxins from Clostridium difficile and Clostridium sordellii 271 6925-6932. 

Ciesielski-Treska J, Ulrich G, Baldacini O, etal. (1991) Phosphorylation of cellular proteins in response to treatment with Clostridium difficile toxin B and Clostridium sordellii toxin L In Eur. J. Cell Biol. 56 68—78. 

Giry M, Popoff MR, Eichel-Streiber Cv, et al. (1995) Transient expression of RhoA, -B, and -C GTPases in HeLa cells potentiates resistance to Clostridium difficile toxins A and B but not to Clostridium sordellii lethal toxin. In Infect Immun. 63 4063-4071. 

Green GA, Schue V, Monteil H (1995) Cloning and characterization of the cytotoxin L-encoding gene of Clostridium sordellii homology with Clostridium difficile cytotoxin B. In Gene, 161 57-61. 

Popoff MR, Chaves-Olarte E, Lemichez E., et al. (1996) Ras, Rap, and Rac small GTP-binding proteins are targets for Clostridium sordellii lethal toxin glucosyla-tion. In J. Biot Chem. 271, 10217-10224. 

Rifkin GD, Fekety FR, Silva J, etal. (1977) Antibiotic-induced colitis implication of a toxin neutralised by Clostridium sordellii antitoxin. In Lancet, ii 1103—1106. 

Fischer, M., Bhatnagar, J., Guarner, J., Reagan, S., Hacker, J.K., Van Meter, S.H., Poukens, V., Whiteman, D.B., Iton, A., Cheung, M., Dassey, D.E., Shieh, W.J. and Zaki, S.R. (2005) Fatal toxic shock syndrome associated with Clostridium sordellii after medical abortion. New England Journal of Medicine, 353, 2352-2360. 

Sinave, C., Le Templier, G., Blouin, D., Leveille, F. and Deland, E. (2002) Toxic shock syndrome due to Clostridium sordellii a dramatic postpartum and postabortion disease. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 35, 1441-1443. 

In the first primary structures of microbial sialidases, obtained by cloning and sequencing of the respective genes from Clostridium perfringens [769], Vibrio cholerae [770], Clostridium sordellii [77 ] and Salmonella typhimurium [772], an amino acid sequence motif was detected, which is repeated four-fold in each protein S-X-D-X-G-X-T-W [773]. This motif, named the Asp-box, was found in all 16 sialidases of animals, trypanosomes, and bacteria, which have so far been sequenced (see refs. [660,768] and Table 18). In viral sialidases, however, the motif was rarely detectable (e.g. only the sialidase from N9 influenza A virus strain exhibits the complete motif [786] and has probably undergone mutational alterations). 

Cross contamination of vaccines with other pathogens has also resulted in mortality and morbidity in animals. These incidents have included pseudorabies virus contaminated with pestivirus, Marek s disease virus contaminated with reticuloendotheliosis virus, contamination of cell lines and vaccines with bovine diarrhoea virus, bluetongue in dogs arising from contaminated live canine vaccine and clostridial disease in ruminants of 202 523 animals in affected herds, 41 767 were infected with Clostridium sordellii and 22 189 died, possibly as a result of a failure in a sterility test for detecting contaminants in a clostridial vaccine. 

Clostridium septicum Clostridium sordellii Micromonospora viridifaciens Salmonella typhimurium Vibrio cholerae... 

Micromonospora viridifaciens Actinomyces viscosus Clostridium septicum Clostridium perfringens ("large") Clostridium perfringens ("small") Clostridium sordellii Salmonella typhimurium... 

Roggentin, P., Gutschker-Gdaniec, G., Schauer, R., and Hobrecht, R., 1985, Correlative properties for a differentiation of two Clostridium sordellii phenotypes and their distinction from Clostridium bifermentans, Zbl. Bakt. Hyg. A 260 319-328. 

Roggentin, P., Berg, W., and Schauer, R., 1987, Purification and characterization of sialidase from Clostridium sordellii G12, Glycoconj. J. 4 349-359. 

White, S., and Mellanby, J., 1%9, The separation of neuraminidase from other pathological activities of a culture filtrate of Clostridium sordellii CN3903, J. Gen. Microbiol. 56 137-141. 

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