Clostridium difficile toxins A and B: exploring the possible mechanism of action

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dc.contributor.authorJefferson, Kimberly Kayen
dc.contributor.committeechairWilkins, Tracy D.en
dc.contributor.committeememberGregory, Eugene M.en
dc.contributor.committeememberHackney, Cameron Rajen
dc.contributor.departmentBiochemistry and Anaerobic Microbiologyen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T21:47:02Zen
dc.date.adate2005-10-07en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T21:47:02Zen
dc.date.issued1995-01-05en
dc.date.rdate2005-10-07en
dc.date.sdate2005-10-07en
dc.description.abstractClostridium difficile is a common cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea and occasionally causes the life-threatening disease pseudomembranous colitis. The pathogenicity of the organism has been attributed to the production of two large exotoxins, toxin A (308,000 daltons) and toxin B (269,000 daltons). Toxin A is a powerful enterotoxin and is generally thought to play the more important role in the pathology of the disease. Toxin B may exert its effect after the initial tissue damage by toxin A. Both toxins cause rounding of mammalian culture cells by disrupting the cytoskeletal system. The similar biological activities and high percentage of sequence homology between the two toxins suggest that they have a similar mechanism of action. I found that purified preparations of both toxins cleave skeletal muscle actin at a single site, producing a 38,000 dalton actin fragment, and that the toxins are capable of autodigestion. The proteolytic activity may be involved in the mechanism of action of the toxins. I also analyzed an aberrant strain of C. difficile which reportedly lacked the gene for toxin B. Such a strain would be very useful for the study of the mechanism of toxin A. I concluded however, that the strain contained the genes for both toxin A and toxin B. The toxin genes and resulting proteins appear, however, to be slightly different from those of other strains.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.format.extentvii, 94 leavesen
dc.format.mediumBTDen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.otheretd-10072005-094822en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-10072005-094822/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/45056en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartLD5655.V855_1995.J444.pdfen
dc.relation.isformatofOCLC# 34087151en
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectpseudomembranous colitisen
dc.subject.lccLD5655.V855 1995.J444en
dc.titleClostridium difficile toxins A and B: exploring the possible mechanism of actionen
dc.typeThesisen
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
thesis.degree.disciplineBiochemistry and Anaerobic Microbiologyen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

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