Orally delivered toxin-binding protein protects against diarrhoea in a murine cholera model.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40108169.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-57945-w and PMC identifier 11923127.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The ongoing seventh cholera pandemic, which began in 1961, poses an escalating threat to public health. There is a need for new cholera control measures, particularly ones that can be produced at low cost, for the one billion people living in cholera-endemic regions. Orally delivered V<sub>H</sub>Hs, functioning as target-binding proteins, have been proposed as a potential approach to control gastrointestinal pathogens. Here, we describe the development of an orally deliverable bivalent V<sub>H</sub>H construct that binds to the B-pentamer of cholera toxin, showing that it inhibits toxin activity in a murine challenge model. Infant mice given the bivalent V<sub>H</sub>H prior to V. cholerae infection exhibit a significant reduction in cholera toxin-associated intestinal fluid secretion and diarrhoea. In addition, the bivalent V<sub>H</sub>H reduces V. cholerae colonization levels in the small intestine by a factor of 10. This cholera toxin-binding protein holds promise for protecting against severe diarrhoea associated with cholera.
Medical subject headings
- Cholera
- Cholera Toxin
- Diarrhea
- Cholera Vaccines