Acute effect of pore-forming Clostridium perfringens ε-toxin on compound action potentials of optic nerve of mouse

ε-Toxin is a pore forming toxin produced by Clostridium perfringens types B and D. It is synthesized as a less active prototoxin form that becomes fully active upon proteolytic activation. The toxin produces highly lethal enterotoxaemia in ruminants, has the ability to cross the blood–brain barrier...

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Main Authors: Cases, Mercè, Llobet, Artur, Terni, Beatrice, Gómez de Aranda, Inmaculada, Blanch, Marta, Doohan, Briain, Revill, Alexander, Brown, Angus M., Blasi, Juan, Solsona, Carles
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Society for Neuroscience 2017
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Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46068/
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author Cases, Mercè
Llobet, Artur
Terni, Beatrice
Gómez de Aranda, Inmaculada
Blanch, Marta
Doohan, Briain
Revill, Alexander
Brown, Angus M.
Blasi, Juan
Solsona, Carles
author_facet Cases, Mercè
Llobet, Artur
Terni, Beatrice
Gómez de Aranda, Inmaculada
Blanch, Marta
Doohan, Briain
Revill, Alexander
Brown, Angus M.
Blasi, Juan
Solsona, Carles
author_sort Cases, Mercè
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description ε-Toxin is a pore forming toxin produced by Clostridium perfringens types B and D. It is synthesized as a less active prototoxin form that becomes fully active upon proteolytic activation. The toxin produces highly lethal enterotoxaemia in ruminants, has the ability to cross the blood–brain barrier (BBB) and specifically binds to myelinated fibers. We discovered that the toxin induced a release of ATP from isolated mice optic nerves, which are composed of myelinated fibers that are extended from the central nervous system. We also investigated the effect of the toxin on compound action potentials (CAPs) in isolated mice optic nerves. When nerves were stimulated at 100 Hz during 200 ms, the decrease of the amplitude and the area of the CAPs was attenuated in the presence of ε-toxin. The computational modelling of myelinated fibers of mouse optic nerve revealed that the experimental results can be mimicked by an increase of the conductance of myelin and agrees with the pore forming activity of the toxin which binds to myelin and could drill it by making pores. The intimate ultrastructure of myelin was not modified during the periods of time investigated. In summary, the acute action of the toxin produces a subtle functional impact on the propagation of the nerve action potential in myelinated fibers of the central nervous system with an eventual desynchronization of the information. These results may agree with the hypothesis that the toxin could be an environmental trigger of multiple sclerosis (MS).
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spelling nottingham-460682018-10-12T14:33:30Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46068/ Acute effect of pore-forming Clostridium perfringens ε-toxin on compound action potentials of optic nerve of mouse Cases, Mercè Llobet, Artur Terni, Beatrice Gómez de Aranda, Inmaculada Blanch, Marta Doohan, Briain Revill, Alexander Brown, Angus M. Blasi, Juan Solsona, Carles ε-Toxin is a pore forming toxin produced by Clostridium perfringens types B and D. It is synthesized as a less active prototoxin form that becomes fully active upon proteolytic activation. The toxin produces highly lethal enterotoxaemia in ruminants, has the ability to cross the blood–brain barrier (BBB) and specifically binds to myelinated fibers. We discovered that the toxin induced a release of ATP from isolated mice optic nerves, which are composed of myelinated fibers that are extended from the central nervous system. We also investigated the effect of the toxin on compound action potentials (CAPs) in isolated mice optic nerves. When nerves were stimulated at 100 Hz during 200 ms, the decrease of the amplitude and the area of the CAPs was attenuated in the presence of ε-toxin. The computational modelling of myelinated fibers of mouse optic nerve revealed that the experimental results can be mimicked by an increase of the conductance of myelin and agrees with the pore forming activity of the toxin which binds to myelin and could drill it by making pores. The intimate ultrastructure of myelin was not modified during the periods of time investigated. In summary, the acute action of the toxin produces a subtle functional impact on the propagation of the nerve action potential in myelinated fibers of the central nervous system with an eventual desynchronization of the information. These results may agree with the hypothesis that the toxin could be an environmental trigger of multiple sclerosis (MS). Society for Neuroscience 2017-07-31 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46068/2/ENEURO.0051-17.2017.full.pdf Cases, Mercè, Llobet, Artur, Terni, Beatrice, Gómez de Aranda, Inmaculada, Blanch, Marta, Doohan, Briain, Revill, Alexander, Brown, Angus M., Blasi, Juan and Solsona, Carles (2017) Acute effect of pore-forming Clostridium perfringens ε-toxin on compound action potentials of optic nerve of mouse. eNeuro, 4 (4). e0051-17.2017/1. ISSN 2373-2822 action potential; ATP release; clostridial toxin; electrophysiology; myelinoptic nerve http://www.eneuro.org/content/4/4/ENEURO.0051-17.2017 doi:10.1523/ENEURO.0051-17.2017 doi:10.1523/ENEURO.0051-17.2017
spellingShingle action potential; ATP release; clostridial toxin; electrophysiology; myelinoptic nerve
Cases, Mercè
Llobet, Artur
Terni, Beatrice
Gómez de Aranda, Inmaculada
Blanch, Marta
Doohan, Briain
Revill, Alexander
Brown, Angus M.
Blasi, Juan
Solsona, Carles
Acute effect of pore-forming Clostridium perfringens ε-toxin on compound action potentials of optic nerve of mouse
title Acute effect of pore-forming Clostridium perfringens ε-toxin on compound action potentials of optic nerve of mouse
title_full Acute effect of pore-forming Clostridium perfringens ε-toxin on compound action potentials of optic nerve of mouse
title_fullStr Acute effect of pore-forming Clostridium perfringens ε-toxin on compound action potentials of optic nerve of mouse
title_full_unstemmed Acute effect of pore-forming Clostridium perfringens ε-toxin on compound action potentials of optic nerve of mouse
title_short Acute effect of pore-forming Clostridium perfringens ε-toxin on compound action potentials of optic nerve of mouse
title_sort acute effect of pore-forming clostridium perfringens ε-toxin on compound action potentials of optic nerve of mouse
topic action potential; ATP release; clostridial toxin; electrophysiology; myelinoptic nerve
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46068/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46068/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46068/