Shiga toxin-converting phages and the emergence of new pathogenic Escherichia coli: a world in motion.

ABSTRACT: Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are pathogenic E. coli causing diarrhea, hemorrhagic colitis (HC) and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). STEC are characterized by a constellation of virulence factors additional to Stx and have long been regarded as capable to cause HC and HUS when possessing the ability of inducing the attaching and effacing (A/E) lesion to the enterocyte, although strains isolated from such severe infections sometimes lack this virulence feature. Interestingly, the capability to cause the A/E lesion is shared with another E. coli pathogroup, the Enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC). In the very recent times, a different type of STEC broke the scene causing a shift in the paradigm for HUS-associated STEC. In 2011, a STEC O104:H4 caused a large outbreak with mo

SUBMITTER: Tozzoli R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4064290 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature