Recombinant truncated diphtheria toxin for possible therapeutic applications

Abstract

Toxicity of Bacterial toxins like diphtheria tocin has been widely utilized to create therapeutic agents that can kill target cells For example Immunotoxins have been developed by fusing antibodies to diphtheria toxin Antibodies home the toxin to specific cells overexpressing the antigens and the toxin kills the target cells Many of these toxins have receptors on certain cells However the receptor binding ability of such toxins remains largely unutilized