Anthrax toxin: can a little be a good thing?

摘要

The secreted lethal toxin produced by Bacillus anthracis is a major virulence factor associated with anthrax. Therefore, understanding how this lethal toxin induces death in the host and how the host responds at the cellular level are major areas of interest. To this end, a surprising new finding reports that murine macrophages can become resistant to lethal toxin through a mechanism coined 'toxin-induced resistance' or TIR.