Study on the pathogenicity of Clostridium perfringens alpha toxin

IF 2.6 4区医学 Q3 INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Infection Genetics and Evolution Pub Date : 2025-08-09 DOI:10.1016/j.meegid.2025.105811

Chongli Xu , Yuhan She , Hongli Li , Ling Hou , Wenqiao Ding

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Alpha toxin is one of the primary pathogenic factors of Clostridium perfringens and is a metalloenzyme with phospholipase C activity. Currently, the pathogenic mechanism of α toxin is not fully understood. The pathogenicity and significance of α toxin in all toxin-type Clostridium perfringens has not been fully studied. The results of circular dichroism spectroscopy of the α toxin protein at different temperatures in this study showed that the molecular structure of the α toxin protein changed at various temperatures, leading to changes in its biological activity. These findings indicate that the molecular structure of α toxin is essential for maintaining its biological activity. Additionally, recombinant proteins of α toxin, β₁ toxin, β₂ toxin and ε toxin were individually cloned and expressed. Simultaneously, recombinant protein immunization experiments and animal challenge experiments were conducted. The significant role of alpha toxin in the pathogenicity of various types of Clostridium perfringens has been established, providing mechanistic insight into α toxin function and the development of genetic engineering subunit vaccines in the future.

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产气荚膜梭菌α毒素致病性的研究。

α毒素是产气荚膜梭菌的主要致病因子之一，是一种具有磷脂酶C活性的金属酶。目前，α毒素的致病机制尚不完全清楚。α毒素在所有毒素型产气荚膜梭菌中的致病性和意义尚未得到充分的研究。本研究对α毒素蛋白在不同温度下的圆二色光谱分析结果表明，α毒素蛋白的分子结构在不同温度下发生了变化，从而导致其生物活性的变化。这些发现表明，α毒素的分子结构对维持其生物活性至关重要。分别克隆并表达了α毒素、β1毒素、β2毒素和ε毒素的重组蛋白。同时进行重组蛋白免疫实验和动物攻毒实验。α毒素在不同类型产气荚膜梭菌致病性中的重要作用已被确立，为α毒素功能的机理研究和未来基因工程亚单位疫苗的开发提供了依据。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Infection Genetics and Evolution 医学-传染病学

CiteScore

8.40

自引率

0.00%

发文量

215

审稿时长

82 days

期刊介绍： (aka Journal of Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics of Infectious Diseases -- MEEGID) Infectious diseases constitute one of the main challenges to medical science in the coming century. The impressive development of molecular megatechnologies and of bioinformatics have greatly increased our knowledge of the evolution, transmission and pathogenicity of infectious diseases. Research has shown that host susceptibility to many infectious diseases has a genetic basis. Furthermore, much is now known on the molecular epidemiology, evolution and virulence of pathogenic agents, as well as their resistance to drugs, vaccines, and antibiotics. Equally, research on the genetics of disease vectors has greatly improved our understanding of their systematics, has increased our capacity to identify target populations for control or intervention, and has provided detailed information on the mechanisms of insecticide resistance. However, the genetics and evolutionary biology of hosts, pathogens and vectors have tended to develop as three separate fields of research. This artificial compartmentalisation is of concern due to our growing appreciation of the strong co-evolutionary interactions among hosts, pathogens and vectors. Infection, Genetics and Evolution and its companion congress [MEEGID](http://www.meegidconference.com/) (for Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics of Infectious Diseases) are the main forum acting for the cross-fertilization between evolutionary science and biomedical research on infectious diseases. Infection, Genetics and Evolution is the only journal that welcomes articles dealing with the genetics and evolutionary biology of hosts, pathogens and vectors, and coevolution processes among them in relation to infection and disease manifestation. All infectious models enter the scope of the journal, including pathogens of humans, animals and plants, either parasites, fungi, bacteria, viruses or prions. The journal welcomes articles dealing with genetics, population genetics, genomics, postgenomics, gene expression, evolutionary biology, population dynamics, mathematical modeling and bioinformatics. We also provide many author benefits, such as free PDFs, a liberal copyright policy, special discounts on Elsevier publications and much more. Please click here for more information on our author services .