IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v501y2013i7465d10.1038_nature12510.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Key tissue targets responsible for anthrax-toxin-induced lethality

Author

Listed:
  • Shihui Liu

    (Microbial Pathogenesis Section, Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health)

  • Yi Zhang

    (Microbial Pathogenesis Section, Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health)

  • Mahtab Moayeri

    (Microbial Pathogenesis Section, Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health)

  • Jie Liu

    (Center for Molecular Medicine, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health)

  • Devorah Crown

    (Microbial Pathogenesis Section, Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health)

  • Rasem J. Fattah

    (Microbial Pathogenesis Section, Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health)

  • Alexander N. Wein

    (Microbial Pathogenesis Section, Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health)

  • Zu-Xi Yu

    (Pathology Core Facility, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health)

  • Toren Finkel

    (Center for Molecular Medicine, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health)

  • Stephen H. Leppla

    (Microbial Pathogenesis Section, Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health)

Abstract

Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax disease, is lethal owing to the actions of two exotoxins: anthrax lethal toxin (LT) and oedema toxin (ET). The key tissue targets responsible for the lethal effects of these toxins are unknown. Here we generated cell-type-specific anthrax toxin receptor capillary morphogenesis protein-2 (CMG2)-null mice and cell-type-specific CMG2-expressing mice and challenged them with the toxins. Our results show that lethality induced by LT and ET occurs through damage to distinct cell types; whereas targeting cardiomyocytes and vascular smooth muscle cells is required for LT-induced mortality, ET-induced lethality occurs mainly through its action in hepatocytes. Notably, and in contradiction to what has been previously postulated, targeting of endothelial cells by either toxin does not seem to contribute significantly to lethality. Our findings demonstrate that B. anthracis has evolved to use LT and ET to induce host lethality by coordinately damaging two distinct vital systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Shihui Liu & Yi Zhang & Mahtab Moayeri & Jie Liu & Devorah Crown & Rasem J. Fattah & Alexander N. Wein & Zu-Xi Yu & Toren Finkel & Stephen H. Leppla, 2013. "Key tissue targets responsible for anthrax-toxin-induced lethality," Nature, Nature, vol. 501(7465), pages 63-68, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:501:y:2013:i:7465:d:10.1038_nature12510
    DOI: 10.1038/nature12510
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature12510
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature12510?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lauren A. Choate & Gilad Barshad & Pierce W. McMahon & Iskander Said & Edward J. Rice & Paul R. Munn & James J. Lewis & Charles G. Danko, 2021. "Multiple stages of evolutionary change in anthrax toxin receptor expression in humans," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:501:y:2013:i:7465:d:10.1038_nature12510. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.