The role of toxin A and toxin B in Clostridium difficile infection

Sarah A. Kuehne, Stephen T. Cartman, John T. Heap, Michelle L. Kelly, Alan Cockayne and Nigel P. Minton ()
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Sarah A. Kuehne: Clostridia Research Group, Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, School of Molecular Medical Sciences, Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre, NIHR Biomedical Research Unit, University of Nottingham
Stephen T. Cartman: Clostridia Research Group, Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, School of Molecular Medical Sciences, Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre, NIHR Biomedical Research Unit, University of Nottingham
John T. Heap: Clostridia Research Group, Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, School of Molecular Medical Sciences, Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre, NIHR Biomedical Research Unit, University of Nottingham
Michelle L. Kelly: Clostridia Research Group, Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, School of Molecular Medical Sciences, Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre, NIHR Biomedical Research Unit, University of Nottingham
Alan Cockayne: Clostridia Research Group, Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, School of Molecular Medical Sciences, Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre, NIHR Biomedical Research Unit, University of Nottingham
Nigel P. Minton: Clostridia Research Group, Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, School of Molecular Medical Sciences, Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre, NIHR Biomedical Research Unit, University of Nottingham

Nature, 2010, vol. 467, issue 7316, 711-713

Abstract: Clostridium difficile toxins revisited Clostridium difficile, the most common cause of infectious diarrhoea in hospitals in Europe and North America, produces two toxins. Their relative importance has been widely debated, and although animal studies had indicated that purified toxin A alone can induce most of the pathology observed in C. difficile infections, a recent Nature paper ( http://go.nature.com/oh6un5 ) suggested that the other toxin, toxin B, was the main cause of disease symptoms. Now a new study, involving C. difficile strains producing either toxin A or toxin B alone and — for the first time — a double-mutant strain producing neither, demonstrates that both toxins are important for disease, and need to be considered for diagnosis and treatment.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1038/nature09397

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