staphylococcal enterotoxins葡萄球菌肠毒素.pdfVIP

Toxins 2010, 2, 2177-2197; doi:10.3390/toxins2082177 OPEN ACCESS toxins ISSN 2072-6651 /journal/toxins Review Staphylococcal Enterotoxins Irina V. Pinchuk 1, Ellen J. Beswick 2 and Victor E. Reyes 3,* 1 Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555-0655, USA; E-Mail: ivpinchu@ 2 Department of Molecular Genetics Microbiology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA; E-Mail: ebeswick@ 3 Departments of Pediatrics and Microbiology Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555-0366, USA * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: vreyes@; Tel.: +1-409-772-3824; Fax: +1-409-772-1761. Received: 29 June 2010; in revised form: 9 August 2010 / Accepted: 12 August 2010 / Published: 18 August 2010 Abstract: Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a Gram positive bacterium that is carried by about one third of the general population and is responsible for common and serious diseases. These diseases include food poisoning and toxic shock syndrome, which are caused by exotoxins produced by S. aureus. Of the more than 20 Staphylococcal enterotoxins, SEA and SEB are the best characterized and are also regarded as superantigens because of their ability to bind to class II MHC molecules on antigen presenting cells and stimulate large populations of T cells that share variable regions on the  chain of the T cell recepto