Abstract
Staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) are produced by some Staphylococcus aureus strains contaminating foodstuffs and are the real causative agents of staphylococcal food poisoning. To date, 24 different SEs have been described, based on sequence homology but only a few of them have been fully characterized. These small secreted proteins combine superantigenic and emetic activities. They are resistant to environmental conditions that easily destroy the enterotoxin-producing strain. They are also resistant to proteolytic enzymes retaining their activity in the digestive tract after ingestion. Rapid and sensitive methods thus are being developed for the detection and identification of SEs in foodstuffs and are presented here. Some methods are based on immunological techniques (ELISA) but, because of the lack of proper SE-specific antibodies for numerous SE types, they do not allow for the identification of all existing SEs. Quantitative mass spectrometry (MS) methods are being developed and overpass limitations of ELISA methods for detecting and quantifying SEs. However, its throughput and cost per analysis compares unfavorably with ELISA. MS methods will not be used in routine analysis, but only to confirm outbreaks due to SEs.
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