Regulatory transcription factors of Clostridioides difficile pathogenesis with a focus on toxin regulation. Academic Article

abstract

• Clostridioides difficile (CD), a nosocomial gut pathogen, produces two major exotoxins, TcdA and TcdB, which disrupt the gut epithelial barrier and induce inflammatory/immune responses, leading to symptoms ranging from mild diarrhoea to pseudomembranous colitis and potentially to death. The expression of toxins is regulated by various transcription factors (TFs) which are induced in response to CD physiological life stages, nutritional availability, and host environment. This review summarises our current understanding on the regulation of toxin expression by TFs that interconnect with pathways of flagellar synthesis, quorum sensing, motility, biofilm formation, sporulation, and phase variation. The pleiotropic roles of some key TFs suggest that toxin production is tightly linked to other cellular processes of the CD physiology.

authors

• Sorg, Joseph

published proceedings

• Crit Rev Microbiol

altmetric score

• 0.25

author list (cited authors)

• Chandra, H., Sorg, J. A., Hassett, D. J., & Sun, X.

citation count

• 0

complete list of authors

• Chandra, Harish||Sorg, Joseph A||Hassett, Daniel J||Sun, Xingmin

publication date

• May 2023

publisher

• Taylor & Francis  Publisher

keywords

• Bacterial Proteins
• Bacterial Toxins
• Biofilm Formation
• Clostridioides
• Clostridioides Difficile
• Pathogenesis
• Sporulation
• Toxin Production
• Transcription Factors
• Transcriptional Regulation

PubMed Central ID

• 35389761

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1080/1040841X.2022.2054307

start page

• 334

end page

• 349

volume

• 49

issue

• 3

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1040841x.2022.2054307