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An exotoxin is a toxin secreted by bacteria. An exotoxin can cause damage to the host by destroying cells or disrupting normal cellular metabolism. They are highly potent and can cause major damage to the host. Exotoxins may be secreted, or, similar to endotoxins, may be released during lysis of the cell. Gram negative pathogens may secrete outer membrane vesicles containing lipopolysaccharide endotoxin and some virulence proteins in the bounding membrane along with some other toxins as intra-vesicular contents, thus adding a previously unforeseen dimension to the well-known eukaryote process of membrane vesicle trafficking, which is quite active at the host–pathogen interface.
Secretion is the movement of material from one point to another, such as a secreted chemical substance from a cell or gland. In contrast, excretion is the removal of certain substances or waste products from a cell or organism. The classical mechanism of cell secretion is via secretory portals at the plasma membrane called porosomes. Porosomes are permanent cup-shaped lipoprotein structures embedded in the cell membrane, where secretory vesicles transiently dock and fuse to release intra-vesicular contents from the cell.
Superantigens (SAgs) are a class of antigens that result in excessive activation of the immune system. Specifically they cause non-specific activation of T-cells resulting in polyclonal T cell activation and massive cytokine release. Superantigens act by binding to the MHC proteins on antigen-presenting cells (APCs) and to the TCRs on their adjacent helper T-cells, bringing the signaling molecules together, and thus leading to the activation of the T-cells, regardless of the peptide displayed on the MHC molecule. SAgs are produced by some pathogenic viruses and bacteria most likely as a defense mechanism against the immune system. Compared to a normal antigen-induced T-cell response where 0.0001-0.001% of the body's T-cells are activated, these SAgs are capable of activating up to 20% of the body's T-cells. Furthermore, Anti-CD3 and Anti-CD28 antibodies (CD28-SuperMAB) have also shown to be highly potent superantigens.
An enterotoxin is a protein exotoxin released by a microorganism that targets the intestines. They can be chromosomally or plasmid encoded. They are heat labile (>60⁰), of low molecular weight and water-soluble. Enterotoxins are frequently cytotoxic and kill cells by altering the apical membrane permeability of the mucosal (epithelial) cells of the intestinal wall. They are mostly pore-forming toxins, secreted by bacteria, that assemble to form pores in cell membranes. This causes the cells to die.
Virulence factors are cellular structures, molecules and regulatory systems that enable microbial pathogens to achieve the following:
Diphtheria toxin is an exotoxin secreted mainly by Corynebacterium diphtheriae but also by Corynebacterium ulcerans and Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis, the pathogenic bacterium that causes diphtheria. The toxin gene is encoded by a prophage called corynephage β. The toxin causes the disease in humans by gaining entry into the cell cytoplasm and inhibiting protein synthesis.
A colicin is a type of bacteriocin produced by and toxic to some strains of Escherichia coli. Colicins are released into the environment to reduce competition from other bacterial strains. Colicins bind to outer membrane receptors, using them to translocate to the cytoplasm or cytoplasmic membrane, where they exert their cytotoxic effect, including depolarisation of the cytoplasmic membrane, DNase activity, RNase activity, or inhibition of murein synthesis.
Cytolysin refers to the substance secreted by microorganisms, plants or animals that is specifically toxic to individual cells, in many cases causing their dissolution through lysis. Cytolysins that have a specific action for certain cells are named accordingly. For instance, the cytolysins responsible for the destruction of red blood cells, thereby liberating hemoglobins, are named hemolysins, and so on. Cytolysins may be involved in immunity as well as in venoms.
Toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1) is a superantigen with a size of 22 kDa produced by 5 to 25% of Staphylococcus aureus isolates. It causes toxic shock syndrome (TSS) by stimulating the release of large amounts of interleukin-1, interleukin-2 and tumour necrosis factor. In general, the toxin is not produced by bacteria growing in the blood; rather, it is produced at the local site of an infection, and then enters the blood stream.
The AB toxins are two-component protein complexes secreted by a number of pathogenic bacteria, though there is a pore-forming AB toxin found in the eggs of a snail. They can be classified as Type III toxins because they interfere with internal cell function. They are named AB toxins due to their components: the "A" component is usually the "active" portion, and the "B" component is usually the "binding" portion. The "A" subunit possesses enzyme activity, and is transferred to the host cell following a conformational change in the membrane-bound transport "B" subunit. These proteins consist of two independent polypeptides, which correspond to the A/B subunit moieties. The enzyme component (A) enters the cell through endosomes produced by the oligomeric binding/translocation protein (B), and prevents actin polymerisation through ADP-ribosylation of monomeric G-actin.
Microbial toxins are toxins produced by micro-organisms, including bacteria, fungi, protozoa, dinoflagellates, and viruses. Many microbial toxins promote infection and disease by directly damaging host tissues and by disabling the immune system. Endotoxins most commonly refer to the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or lipooligosaccharide (LOS) that are in the outer plasma membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. The botulinum toxin, which is primarily produced by Clostridium botulinum and less frequently by other Clostridium species, is the most toxic substance known in the world. However, microbial toxins also have important uses in medical science and research. Currently, new methods of detecting bacterial toxins are being developed to better isolate and understand these toxins. Potential applications of toxin research include combating microbial virulence, the development of novel anticancer drugs and other medicines, and the use of toxins as tools in neurobiology and cellular biology.
The RTX toxin superfamily is a group of cytolysins and cytotoxins produced by bacteria. There are over 1000 known members with a variety of functions. The RTX family is defined by two common features: characteristic repeats in the toxin protein sequences, and extracellular secretion by the type I secretion systems (T1SS). The name RTX refers to the glycine and aspartate-rich repeats located at the C-terminus of the toxin proteins, which facilitate export by a dedicated T1SS encoded within the rtx operon.
Streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxins also known as erythrogenic toxins, are exotoxins secreted by strains of the bacterial species Streptococcus pyogenes. SpeA and speC are superantigens, which induce inflammation by nonspecifically activating T cells and stimulating the production of inflammatory cytokines. SpeB, the most abundant streptococcal extracellular protein, is a cysteine protease. Pyrogenic exotoxins are implicated as the causative agent of scarlet fever and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. There is no consensus on the exact number of pyrogenic exotoxins. Serotypes A-C are the most extensively studied and recognized by all sources, but others note up to thirteen distinct types, categorizing speF through speM as additional superantigens. Erythrogenic toxins are known to damage the plasma membranes of blood capillaries under the skin and produce a red skin rash. Past studies have shown that multiple variants of erythrogenic toxins may be produced, depending on the strain of S. pyogenes in question. Some strains may not produce a detectable toxin at all. Bacteriophage T12 infection of S. pyogenes enables the production of speA, and increases virulence.
In the field of molecular biology, enterotoxin type B, also known as Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB), is an enterotoxin produced by the gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus. It is a common cause of food poisoning, with severe diarrhea, nausea and intestinal cramping often starting within a few hours of ingestion. Being quite stable, the toxin may remain active even after the contaminating bacteria are killed. It can withstand boiling at 100 °C for a few minutes. Gastroenteritis occurs because SEB is a superantigen, causing the immune system to release a large amount of cytokines that lead to significant inflammation.
Bacterial effectors are proteins secreted by pathogenic bacteria into the cells of their host, usually using a type 3 secretion system (TTSS/T3SS), a type 4 secretion system (TFSS/T4SS) or a Type VI secretion system (T6SS). Some bacteria inject only a few effectors into their host’s cells while others may inject dozens or even hundreds. Effector proteins may have many different activities, but usually help the pathogen to invade host tissue, suppress its immune system, or otherwise help the pathogen to survive. Effector proteins are usually critical for virulence. For instance, in the causative agent of plague, the loss of the T3SS is sufficient to render the bacteria completely avirulent, even when they are directly introduced into the bloodstream. Gram negative microbes are also suspected to deploy bacterial outer membrane vesicles to translocate effector proteins and virulence factors via a membrane vesicle trafficking secretory pathway, in order to modify their environment or attack/invade target cells, for example, at the host-pathogen interface.
The type VI secretion system (T6SS) is molecular machine used by a wide range of Gram-negative bacterial species to transport effectors from the interior of a bacterial cell across the cellular envelope into an adjacent target cell. While often reported that the T6SS was discovered in 2006 by researchers studying the causative agent of cholera, Vibrio cholerae, the first study demonstrating that T6SS genes encode a protein export apparatus was actually published in 2004, in a study of protein secretion by the fish pathogen Edwardsiella tarda.
MafB toxins are exotoxins secreted by pathogenic Neisseria species.
Rhs toxins belong to the polymorphic toxin category of bacterial exotoxins. Rhs proteins are widespread and can be produced by both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Rhs toxins are very large proteins of usually more than 1,500 aminoacids with variable C-terminal toxic domains. Their toxic activity can either target eukaryotes or other bacteria.
Contact-dependent growth inhibition (CDI) is a phenomenon where a bacterial cell may deliver a polymorphic toxin molecule into neighbouring bacterial cells upon direct cell-cell contact, causing growth arrest or cell death.
Bacterial secretion systems are protein complexes present on the cell membranes of bacteria for secretion of substances. Specifically, they are the cellular devices used by pathogenic bacteria to secrete their virulence factors to invade the host cells. They can be classified into different types based on their specific structure, composition and activity. Generally, proteins can be secreted through two different processes. One process is a one-step mechanism in which proteins from the cytoplasm of bacteria are transported and delivered directly through the cell membrane into the host cell. Another involves a two-step activity in which the proteins are first transported out of the inner cell membrane, then deposited in the periplasm, and finally through the outer cell membrane into the host cell.
References
- ↑ Hayes, C. S; Koskiniemi, S; Ruhe, Z. C; Poole, S. J; Low, D. A (2014). "Mechanisms and Biological Roles of Contact-Dependent Growth Inhibition Systems". Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine. 4 (2): a010025. doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a010025. PMC 3904093 . PMID 24492845.
- ↑ Jamet, Anne; Nassif, Xavier (2015). "New Players in the Toxin Field: Polymorphic Toxin Systems in Bacteria". mBio. 6 (3): e00285–15. doi:10.1128/mBio.00285-15. PMC 4436062 . PMID 25944858.
- 1 2 Zhang, Dapeng; De Souza, Robson F; Anantharaman, Vivek; Iyer, Lakshminarayan M; Aravind, L (2012). "Polymorphic toxin systems: Comprehensive characterization of trafficking modes, processing, mechanisms of action, immunity and ecology using comparative genomics". Biology Direct. 7: 18. doi: 10.1186/1745-6150-7-18 . PMC 3482391 . PMID 22731697.
- ↑ Zhang, Dapeng; Iyer, Lakshminarayan M; Aravind, L (2011). "A novel immunity system for bacterial nucleic acid degrading toxins and its recruitment in various eukaryotic and DNA viral systems". Nucleic Acids Research. 39 (11): 4532–52. doi:10.1093/nar/gkr036. PMC 3113570 . PMID 21306995.
- ↑ Willett, Julia L.E; Ruhe, Zachary C; Goulding, Celia W; Low, David A; Hayes, Christopher S (2015). "Contact-Dependent Growth Inhibition (CDI) and CdiB/CdiA Two-Partner Secretion Proteins". Journal of Molecular Biology. 427 (23): 3754–65. doi:10.1016/j.jmb.2015.09.010. PMC 4658273 . PMID 26388411.
- ↑ Koskiniemi, S; Lamoureux, J. G; Nikolakakis, K. C; t'Kint De Roodenbeke, C; Kaplan, M. D; Low, D. A; Hayes, C. S (2013). "Rhs proteins from diverse bacteria mediate intercellular competition". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 110 (17): 7032–7. Bibcode:2013PNAS..110.7032K. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1300627110 . PMC 3637788 . PMID 23572593.
- ↑ Brooks, Teresa M; Unterweger, Daniel; Bachmann, Verena; Kostiuk, Benjamin; Pukatzki, Stefan (2013). "Lytic Activity of the Vibrio cholerae Type VI Secretion Toxin VgrG-3 is Inhibited by the Antitoxin TsaB". Journal of Biological Chemistry. 288 (11): 7618–25. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M112.436725 . PMC 3597803 . PMID 23341465.
- ↑ Ma, Jiale; Pan, Zihao; Huang, Jinhu; Sun, Min; Lu, Chengping; Yao, Huochun (2017). "The Hcp proteins fused with diverse extended-toxin domains represent a novel pattern of antibacterial effectors in type VI secretion systems". Virulence. 8 (7): 1189–1202. doi:10.1080/21505594.2017.1279374. PMC 5711352 . PMID 28060574.
- ↑ Jamet, Anne; Jousset, Agnès B; Euphrasie, Daniel; Mukorako, Paulette; Boucharlat, Alix; Ducousso, Alexia; Charbit, Alain; Nassif, Xavier (2015). "A New Family of Secreted Toxins in Pathogenic Neisseria Species". PLOS Pathogens. 11 (1): e1004592. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1004592 . PMC 4287609 . PMID 25569427.