Toxin, anthrax
The toxic substance secreted by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of the disease anthrax.
Anthrax toxin is made up of three proteins. One is protective antigen and two are enzymes that are called edema factor and lethal factor. The protective antigen binds to surface receptors on the host’s cell membranes. After being cleaved by a protease, protective antigen binds to the two toxic enzymes — edema factor and lethal factor — and mediates their transportation into the cytosol (the soluble portion of the cytoplasm) where they exert their pathogenic (disease-causing) effects. Lethal factor is the crucial pathogenic enzyme. It is the killer in the toxin.
Anthrax toxin is not yet fully fathomed. The receptor for protective antigen, named anthrax toxin receptor, has been discovered to be a type I membrane protein with an extracellular Von Willebrand factor A domain that binds directly to protective antigen. And lethal factor has been found to cleave members of what is called the MAPKK (mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase) family and to disrupt cellular signalling.
Read Also:
- Toxo (toxoplasmosis)
Children and adults with an inherited immune defect, a Anyone with AIDS, Anyone receiving systemic (bodywide) chemotherapy, Anyone who has received a transplant and is on immunosuppressive therapy (to prevent rejection of their transplant), and The fetus and newborn. Toxoplasma gondii is a well-known teratogen — an agent that can cause birth defects. If a […]
- Toxoplasma gondii
Children and adults with an inherited immune defect, a Anyone with AIDS, Anyone receiving systemic (bodywide) chemotherapy, Anyone who has received a transplant and is on immunosuppressive therapy (to prevent rejection of their transplant), and The fetus and newborn. Toxoplasma gondii is a well-known teratogen — an agent that can cause birth defects. If a […]
- Toxoplasmosis (toxo)
Children and adults with an inherited immune defect, a Anyone with AIDS, Anyone receiving systemic (bodywide) chemotherapy, Anyone who has received a transplant and is on immunosuppressive therapy (to prevent rejection of their transplant), and The fetus and newborn. Toxoplasma gondii is a well-known teratogen — an agent that can cause birth defects. If a […]
- tPA
Tissue plasminogen activator.
- TPH2
Tryptophan hydroxylase 2, also known as neuronal tryptophan hydroxylase (NTPH), the key rate-limiting enzyme in the synthesis of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, or 5HT). 5HT is causally involved in numerous activities in the central nervous system, and it also has other functions including the maintenance of vascular tone and gut motility. The TPH2 gene is on chromosome […]