YfdX: Difference between revisions

When a person is infected with typhoid it is spread through the intestinal tract the bloodstream. The reason this disease is so toxic is from <scene name='81/814058/Typhoid_toxin/3'>typhoid toxin</scene>, a unique factor produced by S. typhi (Chong, A., Lee, S., Yang, Y. A., & Song, J. (2017)). The toxin is a different type AB toxin which means it is made up of one A subunit and 1 B subunit (Chong, A., Lee, S., Yang, Y. A., & Song, J. (2017)). Typhoid toxin has 2 types of A subunits and 1 B subunit. The A subunits are PltA and CdtB, and the B subunit is PltB (Chong, A., Lee, S., Yang, Y. A., & Song, J. (2017)). Research has shown that the toxin is made up of 1 molecule of each PltA and CdtB with 5 molecules of PltB (Chong, A., Lee, S., Yang, Y. A., & Song, J. (2017)). The combination of Typhoid toxin subunits is what leads it to be very toxic. The typhoid toxin can bind to a wide variety of cells by attaching to certain types of proteins presents on the surface of many cells (Chong, A., Lee, S., Yang, Y. A., & Song, J. (2017)).  These proteins have a specific carbohydrate called glycan and typhoid toxin binds very well to this. Research has shown if there is a reduction in glycans leads to a reduction in typhoid toxin binding (Chong, A., Lee, S., Yang, Y. A., & Song, J. (2017)).  The PltB is thought to be responsible to the binding of the glycans because it has a pocket for the binding of glycans. Typhoid toxin primarily targets immune cells and the central nervous system, leading to the reason why the symptoms are so severe (Chong, A., Lee, S., Yang, Y. A., & Song, J. (2017)).