User:Infinity212/Cholera toxin

Vaccine
There are currently two vaccines for cholera: Dukoral and Shanchol. Both vaccines use whole killed V. cholerae cells however, Dukoral also contains recombinant cholera toxin β (rCTB). Some studies suggest that the inclusion of rCTB may improve vaccine efficacy in young children (2-10) and increase the duration of protection. This is countered by the costs of protecting and storing rCTB against degradation.

Vaccine Adjuvant
Another application of the CTB subunit may be as a vaccine adjuvant to other vaccines. It has been shown that coupling CTB and antigens improves the response of the vaccine. Currently the adjuvant potential of CTB has been shown in large animal models so further research is needed. This may allow for CTB to be used as an adjuvant for vaccinating against many kinds of diseases. This may include bacterial and viral infections, allergy and diabetes. Of note, as CTB has shown to induce mucosal humoral immune responses, vaccines against mucosal viruses such as HIV are a potential target.

Lipid Rafts
Since cholera toxin has been shown to preferentially bind to GM1 gangliosides, this characteristic can be utilized for membrane studies. Lipid rafts are difficult to study as they vary in size and lifetime, as well being part of an extremely dynamic component of cells. Using cholera toxin β as a marker, we can get a better understanding of the properties and functions of lipid rafts.

Endocytosis
Endocytosis is broadly divided into clathrin-dependent and clathrin-independent which cholera toxin utilizes both pathways. Cholera toxin has been shown to enter cells via endocytosis in multiple pathways. These pathways include caveolae, clathrin coated pits, Clarathrin-Independent Carriers (CLICs) and GPI-Enriched Endocytic Compartments (GEECs) pathway, Arf6-mediated endocytosis and fast-endophilin mediated endocytosis (FEME). How cholera toxin triggers these endocytosis pathways is not fully understood, but the fact that cholera toxin triggers these pathways allows the use of the toxin as an important marker to investigate these mechanisms.

Retrograde Trafficking
One of the most important aspects of cholera toxin is the retrograde traffic mechanism that transports the toxin from the cell membrane back to the trans-Golgi network and the endoplasmic reticulum. Since both cholera toxin and GM1 species can be tagged with a fluorescent tags, the mechanism of retrograde traffic can be monitored. This opens up the potential to monitor the mechanism in real time. This may open up new discoveries on how intracellular transport works and how protein and lipid sorting work in the endocytotic pathway.