Phospholipase C and sphingomyelinase activities of the Clostridium perfringens Alfa-toxin

 

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Autoři: Urbina, Patricia, Flores Díaz, Marietta, Alape Girón, Alberto, Alonso, Alicia, Goni, Félix M.
Médium: artículo original
Datum vydání:2009
Popis:Alfa-Toxin is a major pathogenic determinant of Clostridium perfringens, the causative agent of gas gangrene. Alfa-Toxin has been known for long to be a phospholipase C, but up to now its hydrolytic properties have been studied only through indirect methods, e.g. release of cell contents, or under non-physiological conditions, e.g., in micelles, or with soluble substrates. In this report we characterize the phospholipase C and sphingomyelinase activities of Alfa-toxin using a direct assay method (water-soluble phosphorous assay) with phospholipids in bilayer form (large unilamellar vesicles) in the absence of detergents. The simplest bilayer compositions allowing measurable activities under these conditions were DOPC:Chol (2:1 mol ratio) and SM:PE:Chol (2:1:1 mol ratio) for the PLC and SMase activities respectively. PLC activity was five times higher than SMase activity. Both activities gave rise to vesicle aggregation, after a lag time during which ca. 10% of the substrate was hydrolyzed. Vesicle aggregation, measured as an increase in light scattering, was a convenient semi-quantitative method for estimating the enzyme activities. The optimum pH for the combined PLC and SMase activities was in the 5–7 range, in agreement with the proposed role of -toxin in aiding the bacterium to escape the fagosome and survive within the cytosol.
Země:Kérwá
Instituce:Universidad de Costa Rica
Repositorio:Kérwá
OAI Identifier:oai:kerwa.ucr.ac.cr:10669/606
On-line přístup:http://www.journals.elsevier.com/chemistry-and-physics-of-lipids/#description
https://hdl.handle.net/10669/606
Access Level:acceso abierto
Klíčové slovo:Phospholipase C
Sphingomyelinase
Liposome aggregation
Clostridium
Alfa-toxin