What is it about?
Xanthine oxidase (XO) has been recognized as a host defense enzyme in the GI tract for decades. In infection with STEC, however, XO can cause more harm than good. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) generated from XO stimulates production of the Shiga toxins (Stx) and worsens disease. This results in an "uncanny valley" of worse outcome when intermediate amounts of XO are present.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
Our article provides another example of a phenomenon noted by Drs. Arturo Casadevall and Liise-Ann Pirofski, that maximal tissue damage can occur when host defenses are in an intermediate range. Please see Casadevall, Arturo, and Liise-anne Pirofski. "Host-pathogen interactions: redefining the basic concepts of virulence and pathogenicity." Infection and immunity 67.8 (1999): 3703-3713." Please note the similarity between our graph in our Fig. 7 and Graphs 3 and 4 in the Figure 1 of the article by Casedeval & Pirofski.
Perspectives
This article was one of our first forays into studies of host innate immune responses. We continued this work by another study focusing on the role of uric acid in EPEC and STEC infection. Uric acid is the other product of xanthine oxidase along with hydrogen peroxide.
Dr John K. Crane
Univ. at Buffalo
Link to Full Text: http://iai.asm.org/content/81/4/1129
Dr John K. Crane
University at Buffalo
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Role of Host Xanthine Oxidase in Infection Due to Enteropathogenic and Shiga-Toxigenic Escherichia coli, Infection and Immunity, January 2013, ASM Journals,
DOI: 10.1128/iai.01124-12.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
