Destruction of Botulinum Toxin by Bacillus subtilis.

Abstract

In previous papers 1 , 2 it has been shown that a variety of bacteria have the ability to destroy the toxin produced by Clostridium botulinum. This power, though definite, is relatively slight as compared with the ability of certain organisms to destroy the toxin of the diphtheria organism. 3 In our work on the destruction of the toxin of botulism there has not appeared to be any general relationship between the proteolytic activities of the organisms tested and their ability to destroy botulinum toxin. In fact, it has been found that such an active proteolytic organism as Clostridium sporogenes has little or no demonstrable capacity to destroy this toxin, under the conditions of our experiments. 4 On the other hand, Dack, 5 working with mice, showed a definite destruction of botulinum toxin by several strains of Clostridium sporogenes and also by a variety of other spore forming anaerobic organisms.

The purpose of this note is to report the results obtained with Bacillus subtilis, which shows a more marked destruction of botulinum toxin than does any one of the other organisms with which we have worked.

The toxin was made by growing Clostridium botulinum, type A, in a medium composed of: beef infusion, 4% peptone, 0.5% glucose, 0.7% di-basic potassium phosphate, and 0.3% mono-basic potassium phosphate. The culture was grown in this medium for 8 days at 37° C. It was then filtered and the sterility of the filtrate verified by cultural tests. Some of the filtrate was then inoculated with a laboratory culture of Bacillus subtilis and incubated for 14 days at 37° C. Other portions of the same filtrate uninoculated were similarly incubated as controls.