Detoxification of Staphylococcal Toxin by Hydrocortisone and Methylprednisolone

M. J. RAFF, P. BARNWELL
1978 Journal of Medical Microbiology  
Seneca et al. (1957) reported that incubation of prednisolone hemisuccinate with " micrococcal " toxin reduced its haemolytic titre four-fold. It has been claimed that haemolysis of rabbit erythrocytes by staphylococcal a toxin is not inhibited by pre-incubating the toxin with cortisone, hydrocortisone, prednisolone, or dexamethasone (Orsi et al., 1962) . However, these investigators found that several androgens slightly reduced the haemolytic titre of cc toxin. This detoxification was not
more » ... ed to a steroid effect on the target erythrocytes, but was apparently due to an interaction between the steroids and the toxin. There is evidence that staphylococcal a toxin may play a role in virulence (Werner and Ribble, 1967; Kapral, 1974) . In view of the conflicting data concerning interactions between toxin and steroids, it was felt that detoxification of a toxin by steroids -if it could be shown to occur-might be of clinical interest. The following investigation was undertaken in an attempt to define the effects of hydrocortisone and methylprednisolone on the biological activities of staphylococcal cc toxin. MATERIAL AND METHODS Purification of a toxin. Staphylococcal a toxin was prepared by a modification of the method of Bernheimer and Schwartz (1963) , with a medium containing yeast extract dialysate, acid-hydrolysed casein, glucose, thiamine, and nicotinic acid. This medium was inoculated with washed cells from an overnight culture of Staphylococcus aureus, strain Wood 46, and cultures were incubated for 18-20 h at 37°C with continuous rotary agitation. Cells were removed by centrifugation at 10 000 g for 30 min. at 4"C, and protein was precipitated from
doi:10.1099/00222615-11-1-67 pmid:621734 fatcat:76ntuy25rbbnza4fhnqilj4udq