Intracellular trafficking of bacterial toxins

Bacterial toxins often translocate across a cellular membrane to gain access into the host cytosol, modifying cellular components in order to exert their toxic effects. To accomplish this feat, these toxins traffic to a membrane penetration site where they undergo conformational changes essential to eject the toxin's catalytic subunit into the cytosol. In this brief review, we highlight recent findings that elucidate both the trafficking pathways and membrane translocation mechanisms of toxins that cross the plasma, endosomal, or endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane. These findings not only illuminate the specific nature of the host–toxin interactions during entry, but should also provide additional therapeutic strategies to prevent or alleviate the bacterial toxin-induced diseases.