Eighteen guests develop cramping abdominal pain and watery diarrhoea 12 hours after eating reheated chicken curry. There is little vomiting and no fever, and all recover within a day. The most likely causative agent produces disease through:
- A Heat-labile enterotoxin acting on adenylate cyclase in the small intestine ✓
- B Preformed heat-stable enterotoxin causing fluid secretion in the small intestine
- C Cytotoxin disrupting the cytoskeleton via glucosylation of Rho proteins
- D Superantigen-mediated cytokine release in the gut mucosa
Correct answer: A. Heat-labile enterotoxin acting on adenylate cyclase in the small intestine
Explanation
Clostridium perfringens type B food poisoning follows ingestion of organisms in reheated meat dishes that sporulate in the intestine and release a heat-labile enterotoxin. The toxin inserts into small intestinal epithelial cells and alters permeability, classically described via adenylate cyclase effects, producing the 8 to 16 hour incubation diarrhoeal illness. Preformed heat-stable toxin is staphylococcal, Rho glucosylation is C. difficile toxin A, and superantigens cause toxic shock rather than pure gastroenteritis.
Reference: Ananthanarayan and Paniker's Textbook of Microbiology, 11th ed.
High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP
Written and medically reviewed by the StethoPrep medical team.