Fol. Biol. 2000, 46, 89-90
Monoclonal Antibodies against Type-A Staphylococcal Enterotoxin
Type A staphylococcal enterotoxin (SEA) is a singlechain, heat-stable protein with a molecular weight of 27.8 kDa and isoelectric point (pI) of 7.3 (Su and Wong, 1997), which is produced by enterotoxigenic strains of Staphylococcus aureus. SEA, along with staphylococcal enterotoxins B and C (SEB and SEC), belong to enterotoxins most frequently occuring in foodstuffs. By its ability to form complexes with molecules of the MHC class II and subsequently to activate a large number of T lymphocytes, it falls into the group of superantigens (Svensson et al., 1997). Due to the proliferation of a large proportion of T lymphocytes, an excessive quantity of lymphokines is released that are likely to contribute to the development of enterotoxin-induced disease - staphylococcal enterotoxicosis (Marrack and Kappler, 1990). Relatively little is known of antigenic determinants of staphylococcal enterotoxins and how these may relate to the structure and function of the toxins (Wood, et al., 1997). To detect staphylococcal enterotoxins in foodstuffs, immunochemical methods (RIA, ELISA) are mostly employed using specific polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies. Monoclonal antibodies against SEA were prepared to be used in the development of the ELISA method.
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