PMID- 26432699
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20161006
LR  - 20200826
IS  - 1465-2080 (Electronic)
IS  - 1350-0872 (Linking)
VI  - 161
IP  - 12
DP  - 2015 Dec
TI  - Toxic shock syndrome toxin-1, not alpha-toxin, mediated Bundaberg fatalities.
PG  - 2361-2368
LID - 10.1099/mic.0.000196 [doi]
AB  - The 1928 Bundaberg disaster is one of the greatest vaccine tragedies in history. 
      Of 21 children immunized with a diphtheria toxin-antitoxin preparation 
      contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus, 18 developed life-threatening disease 
      and 12 died within 48  h. Historically, the deaths have been attributed to 
      alpha-toxin, a secreted cytotoxin produced by most S. aureus strains, yet the ability 
      of the Bundaberg contaminant microbe to produce the toxin has never been 
      verified. For the first time, the ability of the original strain to produce 
      alpha-toxin and other virulence factors is investigated. The study investigates the 
      genetic and regulatory loci mediating alpha-toxin expression by PCR and assesses 
      production of the cytotoxin in vitro using an erythrocyte haemolysis assay. This 
      analysis is extended to other secreted virulence factors produced by the strain, 
      and their sufficiency to cause lethality in New Zealand white rabbits is 
      determined. Although the strain possesses a wild-type allele for alpha-toxin, it must 
      have a defective regulatory system, which is responsible for the strain's minimal 
      alpha-toxin production. The strain encodes and produces staphylococcal superantigens, 
      including toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1), which is sufficient to cause 
      lethality in patients. The findings cast doubt on the belief that alpha-toxin is the 
      major virulence factor responsible for the Bundaberg fatalities and point to the 
      superantigen TSST-1 as the cause of the disaster.
FAU - Mueller, Elizabeth A
AU  - Mueller EA
AD  - Department of Microbiology, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa 
      City, IA 52242, USA.
FAU - Merriman, Joseph A
AU  - Merriman JA
AD  - Department of Microbiology, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa 
      City, IA 52242, USA.
FAU - Schlievert, Patrick M
AU  - Schlievert PM
AD  - Department of Microbiology, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa 
      City, IA 52242, USA.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20151001
PL  - England
TA  - Microbiology (Reading)
JT  - Microbiology (Reading, England)
JID - 9430468
RN  - 0 (Bacterial Toxins)
RN  - 0 (Enterotoxins)
RN  - 0 (Superantigens)
RN  - 0 (enterotoxin F, Staphylococcal)
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Australia
MH  - Bacterial Toxins/*toxicity
MH  - Enterotoxins/*toxicity
MH  - Humans
MH  - Rabbits
MH  - Staphylococcal Infections/*microbiology/mortality
MH  - Staphylococcus aureus/genetics/*metabolism
MH  - Superantigens/*toxicity
EDAT- 2015/10/04 06:00
MHDA- 2016/10/08 06:00
CRDT- 2015/10/04 06:00
PHST- 2015/10/04 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2015/10/04 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2016/10/08 06:00 [medline]
AID - 10.1099/mic.0.000196 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Microbiology (Reading). 2015 Dec;161(12):2361-2368. doi: 10.1099/mic.0.000196. 
      Epub 2015 Oct 1.