Transcripts
DR. LINGWOOD:
Okay, another risk factor is the
type of toxin. So as I said, the VT1 and VT2
are the primary human verotoxin/Shiga toxins.
You add them to cultured cells -- VT2 is less
cytotoxic in vitro, but more cytotoxic to human
microvascular renal endothelial cells. What does
that mean? This may be part of the reason why
VT2 seems to be more associated with disease in
humans. VT2, unlike VT1, is neurotoxic in
rabbits. And I will show you something later on
that you will recall in the Japanese outbreak,
hardly anybody got the classical renal problems.
All the deaths were of neurologic symptoms and
that was a VT2 outbreak.
And the point that we're
particularly interested in this is that VT2 and
VT1 may preferentially bind to different Gb3
isoforms. And by isoforms, I mean different
lipid structures.
