Staphylococcal alpha-toxin

The concept of membrane damage as an effector mechanism of bacterial exotoxins arose during the 1970s, mainly through the work on alpha-toxin by Freer, Arbuthnott and Bernheimer (Bernheimer, 1974 Freer et al., 1968) and, subsequently, Thelestam and Mollby (1975). These studies gave rise to the idea that staphylococcal alpha-toxin produced permeability defects in membranes. However, it was... 

Certain cellular processes are specifically influenced by gradients of monovalent ions across the plasma membrane. It appears that stimulation of some such processes are actually counteracted by concomitant flux. Ca -dependent processes in turn may be abrogated when pores are large enough to permit rapid egress of cytoplasmic proteins. Therefore, it is useful to differentiate between three types of pores (a) those that are selectively permissive for monovalent ions (e.g. staphylococcal alpha-toxin) (b) those that are permissive for Ca and small molecules, but not for proteins (e.g. E. coli hemolysin) and (c) large pores that allow passage of macromolecules (e.g. streptolysin O). 

In the following, we will describe our current protocols for isolating staphylococcal alpha-toxin and streptolysin-O from bacterial culture supernatants. The protocol for isolating recombinant streptolysin-O from call has been published (Weller et al., 1996) and will not be... 

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Bhakdi S, Muhly M, Mannhardt U et al. (1988) Staphylococcal alpha toxin promotes blood coagulation via attack on human platelets. In J Exp Med 168 527-542. 

Freer JH, Arbuthnott JP, Bernheimer AW (1968) Interaction of staphylococcal alpha toxin with artificial and natural membranes. In J Bacterial 95 1153-1168. 

Jonas D, Walev I, Berger T et al. (1994) Small transmembrane pores created by staphylococcal alpha-toxin in T lymphocytes evoke internucleosomal DNA-degradation. In Infect Immun 62 1304-1312. 

Suttorp N, SeegerW, Dewein E et al. (1985) Staphylococcal alpha-toxin-induced PG12 production in endothelial cells role of calcium. In Am J Physiol 248 C127-C135. 

Bhakdi S, Muhly M, Fusslc R. Correlation between toxin binding and hemolytic activity in membrane damage by staphylococcal alpha-toxin. Infect Immun 1984 46 318-323. 

Bhakdi S, Waley I, Husmann M, Valeva A (2005) Staphylococcal alpha-toxin, topics in current genetics. In Schmitt MJ, Schaffrath R (eds) Microbial protein toxins, vol 11. Springer, Berlin, pp 91-110... 

Kato, I., and Naiki, M., 1976, Ganglioside and rabbit erythrocyte membrane receptor for Staphylococcal alpha-toxin. Infect. Immun. 13 289-291. 

Cassidi P, Harshman S. (1976) Biochemical studies on the binding of staphylococcal l-labeled alpha-toxin to rabbit erythrocytes. In Biochemistry 15 2348-2355. 

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