Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) infections can lead to life-threatening complications, including hemorrhagic colitis (HC) and hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), which is the most common cause of acute renal failure in children in the United States. Stx1 and Stx2 are AB5 toxins consisting of an enzymatically active A subunit associated with a pentamer of receptor binding B subunits. Epidemiological evidence suggests that Stx2-producing E. coli strains are more frequently associated with HUS than Stx1-producing strains. Several studies suggest that the B subunit plays a role in mediating toxicity. However, the role of the A subunits in the increased potency of Stx2 has not been fully investigated. Here, using purified A1 subunits, we show that Stx2A1 has a higher affinity for yeast and mammalian ribosomes than Stx1A1. Biacore analysis indicated that Stx2A1 has faster association and dissociation with ribosomes than Stx1A1. Analysis of ribosome depurination kinetics demonstrated that Stx2A1 depurinates yeast and mammalian ribosomes and an RNA stem-loop mimic of the sarcin/ricin loop (SRL) at a higher catalytic rate and is a more efficient enzyme than Stx1A1. Stx2A1 depurinated ribosomes at a higher level in vivo and was more cytotoxic than Stx1A1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Stx2A1 depurinated ribosomes and inhibited translation at a significantly higher level than Stx1A1 in human cells. These results provide the first direct evidence that the higher affinity for ribosomes in combination with higher catalytic activity toward the SRL allows Stx2A1 to depurinate ribosomes, inhibit translation, and exhibit cytotoxicity at a significantly higher level than Stx1A1.
Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is an emerging foodborne and waterborne pathogen. STEC infections can lead to life-threatening complications, including hemorrhagic colitis (HC) and hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), with potentially lethal consequences (1). Due to a very low infectious dose and ease of person-to-person spread, STEC infection is the leading cause of death from foodborne bacterial infection in children (2). Presently, there are no postexposure therapeutics or vaccines available for STEC infection. Due to recent outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 in the United States and the emergence of highly virulent new strains, such as E. coli O104:H4, which caused the deadliest HUS outbreak in Germany in 2011, STEC remains a major challenge for food safety and public health (3-6).The primary virulence factors of STEC, Shiga toxin 1 (Stx1) and Shiga toxin 2 (Stx2), are AB 5 toxins consisting of an enzymatically active A subunit associated with a pentamer of receptor binding B subunits and are known as type II ribosome-inactivating proteins (RIPs). The A subunits of Stx1 and Stx2 consist of the catalytically active A1 (residues 1 to 251 in Stx1 and 1 to 250 in Stx2) and A2 (residues 252 to 293 in Stx1 and 251 to 297 in Stx2) chains, which are cleaved by the protease furin and kept together by a disulfide bond (7). The B subunits bind ...