Identification of a new toxin from a strain of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from a patient with nonmenstrual toxic shock syndrome.

The extracellular products of a toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 (TSST-1)-negative isolate of Staphylococcus aureus (strain D4508) from a patient with nonmenstrual toxic shock syndrome were shown to possess toxic activity capable of producing shock and death when injected into rabbits. Fractionation of the extracellular products and the production of polyclonal antibodies to individual polypeptides identified the toxin as a single polypeptide of molecular weight 26,000. Immunoblot analyses showed the toxin to be antigenically related yet distinct from enterotoxins A, B, C, D, and E and unrelated to TSST-1.