Three supplementary methods for analyzing cytotoxicity of Escherichia coli O157:H7

Escherichia coli O157:H7 is an enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) strain and a major food-borne pathogen, causing severe disease in humans worldwide. Multiple sensitive, accurate, and quantitative methods are needed to provide a comprehensive analysis of cell damage caused by O157:H7. However, the current, universally adopted methods for O157:H7 virulence assessment fail to investigate the interactive effects of O157:H7 and its host cells, neglect the effects of infection of host cells by O157:H7, and fail to comprehensively and accurately reflect the true pathogenicity of O157:H7. In this study, three different accurate, sensitive, and quantifiable methods were supplementary to provide standard operating procedures to analyze the cytotoxicity of O157:H7. This set of methods can be applied to toxicity studies of newly discovered O157:H7 clinical isolates and used to study how a clinical isolate's toxicity correlates with its pathogenicity. These methods can also be used in future studies of latent virulence factors and to explore the pathogenic mechanisms of O157:H7.