Activation of intestinal mucosal adenylate cyclase by Shigella dysenteriae I enterotoxin.

Because the mechanism whereby Shigella dysenteriae I enterotoxin induces intestinal secretion is unclear, the effect of this toxin on adenylate cyclase activity in rabbit ileal mucosa was studied under various in vitro and in vivo conditions. Activation of adenylate cyclase by Shigella enterotoxin was observed only when substrate (ATP) concentrations above the Km of adenylate cyclase were employed. These concentrations of ATP are greater than those required to demonstrate activation of adenylate cyclase by cholera toxin. Under optimal assay conditions, doses of Shigella toxin between 5.4 and 900 mug of toxin protein and in vivo incubation times between 6 and 18 hr all increased adenylate cyclase activity by about 100%. Shigella toxin produced significant but highly variable increases in mucosal cyclic AMP concentrations, which were less that the rises seen with a comparable dose of cholera toxin. This variability in cyclic AMP response to Shigella toxin and the disparity between Shigella and cholera toxins' effects on mucosal cyclic AMP are probably the result of the different kinetics of adenylate cyclase activated by these enterotoxins. Mucosal Na-K-ATPase activity was unaffected by Shigella toxin. These observations suggest that alterations in fluid and electrolyte transport induced by Shigella enterotoxin may, in part, be mediated by the adenylate cyclase-cyclic AMP system.