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Biochemical and Biological Properties of Staphylococcal Enterotoxin K
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Biochemical and Biological Properties of Staphylococcal Enterotoxin K

Paul M Orwin, Donald Y. M Leung, Heather L Donahue, Richard P Novick and Patrick M Schlievert
Infection and immunity, Vol.69(1), pp.360-366
01/2001
DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.1.360-366.2001
PMCID: PMC97891
PMID: 11119525
url
https://doi.org/10.1128/IAI.69.1.360-366.2001View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus is an important human pathogen which is implicated in a wide variety of diseases. Major determinants of the virulence of this organism include extracellular virulence factors. Staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) are important causative agents in staphylococcal toxic shock syndrome and food poisoning. Our study identified a novel enterotoxin, SEK, and examined its biochemical and biological properties. SEK had a molecular weight of 26,000 and an experimentally determined pI of between 7.0 and 7.5. SEK was secreted by clinical isolates of S. aureus . We demonstrated that SEK had many of the biological activities associated with the SEs, including superantigenicity, pyrogenicity, the ability to enhance the lethal effect of endotoxin, and lethality in a rabbit model when administered by subcutaneous miniosmotic pump. Recombinant SEK was shown to stimulate human CD4 + and CD8 + T cells in a Vβ-specific manner; T-cells bearing Vβ 5.1, 5.2, and 6.7 were significantly stimulated to proliferate.
Molecular Pathogenesis

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