A poisonous substance, especially a protein, that is produced by living cells or organisms and is capable of causing disease when introduced into the body tissues but is often also capable of inducing neutralizing antibodies or antitoxins.
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A poisonous or harmful nonbiological substance, such as a pollutant.
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A poisonous or harmful nonbiological substance, such as a pollutant.
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Any of various similar poisons, related to proteins, formed in certain plants, as ricin, or secreted by certain animals, as snake venom: toxins, when injected into animals or humans, typically initiate the formation of antitoxins.
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Any of various poisonous compounds produced by some microorganisms and causing certain diseases.
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A poisonous substance, especially one produced by a living organism. Toxins can be products or byproducts of ordinary metabolism, such as lactic acid, and they must be broken down or excreted before building up to dangerous levels. Toxins can facilitate survival, as with snake venom that kills or immobilizes prey, or cyanide produced by some plants as a defense against being eaten. Bacterial toxins can sometimes be neutralized with antitoxins.
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A toxic or poisonous substance produced by the biological processes of biological organisms.
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A poisonous substance, especially a protein, that is produced by living cells or organisms and is capable of causing disease when introduced into the body tissues but is often also capable of inducing neutralizing antibodies or antitoxins.
The serum of the animal is tested from time to time against a known amount of toxin, i.e.
By growing this bacillus in broth a toxin is formed which remains in solution and can be separated from the bacilli themselves by filtration.
Then we have the property of adaptation, in which the negative reaction may be changed into a positive; a given toxin may at first repel the cell, but by a gradual process the cell becomes accustomed to such a toxin and will move towards it.
Of such are tetanus and diphtheria, now known to be due to the establishment from without of a local microbic infection, from which focus a toxin is diffused to the nervous matter.
Though an enormous of amount of work has been done on the subject, no important bacterial toxin has as yet been obtained in a pure condition, and, though many of them are probably of proteid nature, even this cannot be asserted with absolute certainty.