preview

Enterotoxins Essay

Better Essays

Toxins are poisons produced by living organisms. Epidemics of staphylococcal food poisoning are very common across the world. But, there is hardly any report of SFP from the Indian subcontinent. An outbreak occurred in Indian country, the Madhya Pradesh’s state after the ingestion of a snack that made up with potato balls fried in vegetable oil, called “Bhalla”. More than 100 children and adults who ate the snack suffered from the normal side effects of SFP and required hospitalization. From the clinical sample of food, there were found a large number of enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus that appeared (Vijay et al., 2007). Hence, one of the seven enterotoxins that produced by strains of Staphylococcus aureus was Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB).
Staphylococcal enterotoxins B is commonly referred to as superantigen due to it significant effects on the immune system. Only a few concentrations of superantigens can activate immune system receptors because they bind to T-cell …show more content…

There was specific enthusiasm in weaponizing SEB exposed in the Cold War Era due to its stability and potential simplicity in production and distribution. SEB was studied in an aerosolized form for use as a weapon. It may be purified from culture supernatants in the laboratory, and therefore would be easy to produce (Pinchuk et al., 2010). Although high-dose exposures may well cause fatalities, it is the weakening consequences of inhalational exposure to agents such as SEB on the battlefield that are of most concern with regard to biological resistance (Ulrich, n.d.).The extremely small amount of material that is required for toxic effect indicates that a complex is necessary for the toxin to exert its effect. SEB can represent a practical bioterrorist weapon because purified toxin can be isolated from S. aureus culture

Get Access