A small protein active in the human immune response can disable bacterial toxins by exploiting a property that makes the toxins effective-but also turns out to be a weakness. These toxins, which are released by bacteria, have malleable surfaces that allow them to move through porous areas of host cells to pave the way for bacteria to stay alive, but that same malleability makes the toxins vulnerable to these immune system proteins, which bind to the toxins and render them useless.
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