title: Vaccines against Clostridium perfringens alpha-toxin.
abstract: Clostridium perfringens alpha-toxin is thought to be an important agent in gas gangrene, which is a lifethreatening infection with fever, pain, edema, myonecrosis, and gas production. The toxin (370 residues) is composed of an N-terminal domain (1-250 residues, N-domain) in which the catalytic site is found and a C-terminal domain (251-370 residues, C-domain) responsible for binding to membranes. During the past decade, recombinant DNA technology has been employed to develop second-generation vaccines, including site-directed mutants and the C-domain of the toxin, to prevent gas gangrene. These immunities have led to protection against the lethal effects of wild-type C. perfringens in mice. C-domain vaccines are capable of protecting against heterologous clostridia causing clostridial myonecrosis. This article summarizes the current knowledge on vaccines against alpha-toxin.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokushima Bunri University, Yamashiro- cho, Tokushima 770-8514, Japan. nagahama@ph.bunri-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nagahama
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D001428:Bacterial Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000276:immunology*; D001665:Binding Sites; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D003015:Clostridium Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003016:Clostridium perfringens / Q000201:enzymology / Q000276:immunology* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D005738:Gas Gangrene / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D010738:Type C Phospholipases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D001428:Bacterial Vaccines; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins; D010738:Type C Phospholipases; C040649:alpha toxin, Clostridium perfringens