[The receptors for bacterial enterotoxins]

Abstract

Bacterial enterotoxins, produced by some pathogenic bacteria, induce diarrhoea during human or animal digestive infections; most of them act via membrane receptors and are specifically recognized on the enterocyte brush border. These receptors differ in number (which probably determines the degree of enterotoxin toxicity, nature, structure, and specificity. The receptors, ie glycolipids (GM1) or glycoproteins, are well represented on the surface of the enterocyte, and/or in various vertebrate cell types. The enterotoxins bind to the receptor glucoside chains, in which sequences have sometimes been determined. In most cases irreversible binding occurs due to enterotoxin internalization.