Recent Insights into Clostridium perfringens Beta-Toxin
Masahiro Nagahama,
Sadayuki Ochi,
Masataka Oda,
Kazuaki Miyamoto,
Masaya Takehara,
Keiko Kobayashi
Affiliations
Masahiro Nagahama
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokushima Bunri University, Yamashiro-cho 770-8514, Tokushima, Japan
Sadayuki Ochi
Department of Microbiology, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Toyoake 470-1192, Aichi, Japan
Masataka Oda
Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Gakkocho-dori, Chuo-ku 951-8514, Niigata, Japan
Kazuaki Miyamoto
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokushima Bunri University, Yamashiro-cho 770-8514, Tokushima, Japan
Masaya Takehara
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokushima Bunri University, Yamashiro-cho 770-8514, Tokushima, Japan
Keiko Kobayashi
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokushima Bunri University, Yamashiro-cho 770-8514, Tokushima, Japan
Clostridium perfringens beta-toxin is a key mediator of necrotizing enterocolitis and enterotoxemia. It is a pore-forming toxin (PFT) that exerts cytotoxic effect. Experimental investigation using piglet and rabbit intestinal loop models and a mouse infection model apparently showed that beta-toxin is the important pathogenic factor of the organisms. The toxin caused the swelling and disruption of HL-60 cells and formed a functional pore in the lipid raft microdomains of sensitive cells. These findings represent significant progress in the characterization of the toxin with knowledge on its biological features, mechanism of action and structure-function having been accumulated. Our aims here are to review the current progresses in our comprehension of the virulence of C. perfringens type C and the character, biological feature and structure-function of beta-toxin.
