DIPHTHERIA

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Acute contagious infection caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae; marked by the formation of a false membrane in the throat and other air passages causing difficulty in breathing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("diphtheria" is a kind of...):

contagion; contagious disease (any disease easily transmitted by contact)

Credits

Context examples:

There had been a daughter, I heard, but she had died of diphtheria while on a visit to Birmingham.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A usually mild form of diphtheria characterized by infection of the skin by corynebacterium diphtheria and the resulting formation of a chronic, shallow ulcer that is sometimes bordered or followed by a bulla.

(Cutaneous Diphtheria, NCI Thesaurus)

Anti-CD3 immunotoxin A-dmDT390-bisFv(UCHT1) consists of 1-390 amino acid residues of chain A diphtheria toxin (DT) joined via a spacer to the Fv fragment of UCHT1, which is connected to a second UCHT1 Fv fragment via a disulfide bond (hence the bisFv designation); the addition of the second Fv fragment overcomes the steric hindrance of immunotoxin binding due to the large N-terminal DT domain.

(Anti-CD3 Immunotoxin A-dmDT390-bisFv(UCHT1), NCI Thesaurus)

A 60 kD single chain protein elaborated by Corynebacterium diphtheriae that causes the sign and symptoms of diphtheria; it can be broken into two unequal fragments, the smaller (A fragment) inhibits protein synthesis and is the lethal moiety that needs the larger (B fragment) for entry into cells.

(Diphtheria Toxin, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Diphtheria is a serious bacterial infection.

(Diphtheria, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

A Gram-positive bacterial infection caused by Corynebacterium diphtheria.

(Diphtheria, NCI Thesaurus)

After binding to the EGF receptor, the agent is internalized by the cell, where the diphtheria toxin moiety exerts its cytotoxic effect, inhibiting protein synthesis through ADP-ribosylation of elongation factor 2.

(DAB389 Epidermal Growth Factor, NCI Thesaurus)

A cytotoxic recombinant protein consisting of interleukin-2 (IL-2) protein sequences fused to diphtheria toxin.

(Denileukin diftitox, NCI Thesaurus)

This species is nonmotile, non-spore forming, catalase positive, non-lipophilic, produces diphtheria toxin which inhibits elongation factor 2 (EF-2) thus preventing protein synthesis, forms polar granules, and is cultured in Loeffler's serum in a low iron environment or on tellurite agar.

(Corynebacterium diphtheriae, NCI Thesaurus)