For people in wealthy countries, diarrhea is usually nothing more than an uncomfortable inconvenience for a few days. But for a poor child in a developing country, repeated bouts of diarrhea can lead to serious health consequences such as malnutrition, stunted growth and cognitive deficits.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered that a toxin produced by the bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli), long known to cause diarrhea, also has other effects on the human digestive tract. The toxin, they found, changes gene expression in the cells that line the inside of the gut, inducing them to manufacture a protein that the bacterium then uses to attach to the intestinal wall.
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