Shiga Toxin: Occurrence, Pathogenicity, Detection and Therapies

Shiga-toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are the third leading cause of foodborne illness after Campylobacter and Salmonella, and are implicated in 265,000 illnesses in the US and 2.8M infections globally. Significant economic losses incurred by public health, agriculture and the meat industry estimated at $993 million per year prompted the declaration of commonly implicated STEC serotypes (O157, O26, O103, O111, O121, O145, and O45) as food adulterants by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. STEC infections are acquired through the ingestion of bacteria-contaminated food or water, or by hand-to-mouth transmission. Cattle are considered to be the primary STEC reservoirs, as most outbreaks are directly or indirectly associated with cattle. Following infection, some individuals remain asymptomatic, while others develop watery or bloody diarrhea that may progress to fatal secondary sequelae. Successful infection is established following the ingestion of only a few organisms (50–500 viable bacteria), attributable to multiple-acid tolerance and quorum sensing mechanisms. Virulence factors such as the phage-encoded Shiga toxins (Stx), plasmid-encoded hemolysin, and various adherence factors including intimin, encoded by the eae gene on the pathogenicity-island locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE), play a significant role in human disease. Cattle remain asymptomatic due to the absence of receptors for Stx; without uptake of toxin there is no resulting systemic failure as observed in humans. Thus, Stx are the primary virulence factors contributing towards STEC pathogenicity in humans through niche establishment, nutrient acquisition, host immune response modulation/evasion, and targeted cell pathology.

In this Special Issue, we seek to provide a comprehensive collection of publications on Stx in the context of: (i) toxin structure, acquisition, evolution, variants, and mode of action; (ii) host–pathogen interaction—structural and immune; (iii) disease prediction and risk assessment; and (iv) toxin detection and targeted therapies. Review and research papers describing established and novel concepts are welcome.

Dr. Indira Kudva
Guest Editor

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