Study reveals new details about how bacterial toxins cause life-threatening colitis
Wayne Lewis | FINDINGS Research led by scientists from UCLA and Harvard University has uncovered details about how the bacterium Clostridioides difficile causes excessive inflammation in the gut that can lead to potentially deadly colitis. Studying C. difficile toxin A, one of two toxins released by the bacterium, the researchers produced two key findings. They pinpointed which part of the toxic protein can permeate cell membranes to gain entry to cellular structures called endosomes, demonstrating that even fragments of the protein that contain that key segment are capable of acce...