α-Hemolysin (alpha haemolysin; Hly; Hla; α-toxin). Fragments (13-293 aas) form heptamers like the native full length protein, but a fragment with aas 72-293 formed heptamers, octamers and nonamers. All formed Cl^- permeable β-barrel channels (Vécsey-Semjén et al., 2010). The 3-d structure is available (PDB#7AHL). Both symmetry and size of cyclodextrin inhibitors and the toxin pore are important for effective inhibition (Yannakopoulou et al., 2011).  Oxoxylin A inhibits hemolysis by hindering self assembly of the hepatmeric pore in which two β-strands are contributed by each subunit (Song et al. 1996; Dong et al. 2013).  Applications of pore-forming α-haemolysin include small- and macromolecule-sensing, targeted cancer therapy, and drug delivery (Gurnev and Nestorovich 2014). Sugawara et al. 2015 studied pore formation. Structural comparisons among monomer, prepore and pore revealed a series of motions in which the N-terminal amino latch released upon oligomerization destroys its own key hydrogen bond betweem Asp45 and Try118. This action initiates the protrusion of the prestem. A Y118F mutant and the N-terminal truncated mutant markedly decreased the hemolytic activity, indicating the importance of the key hydrogen bond and the N-terminal amino latch for pore formation. A dynamic molecular mechanism of pore formation was proposed (Sugawara et al. 2015). Release of ATP from cells may occur directly through transmembrane pores formed by α-toxin (Baaske et al. 2016). The amino latch of staphylococcal alpha-hemolysin functions in pore formation via an co-operative interaction between the N terminus and position 217 (Jayasinghe et al. 2006).

PLEKHA7 and other junctional proteins are host factors mediating death by S. aureus alpha-toxin. ADAM10 is docked to junctions by its transmembrane partner Tspan33, whose cytoplasmic C-terminus binds to the WW domain of PLEKHA7 in the presence of PDZD11. ADAM10 is locked at junctions through binding of its cytoplasmic C terminus to afadin. Junctionally clustered ADAM10 supports the efficient formation of stable toxin pores. Disruption of the PLEKHA7-PDZD11 complex inhibits ADAM10 and toxin junctional clustering. This promotes toxin pore removal from the cell surface through an actin- and macropinocytosis-dependent process, resulting in cell recovery from initial injury and survival. Thus, a dock-and-lock molecular mechanism targets ADAM10 to junctions, providing a paradigm for how junctions may regulate transmembrane receptors through their clustering (Shah et al. 2018). Airway epithelial cells are sensitivity to S. aureus α-Toxin, but the toxin heptamers are removed by extracellular vesicle formation and lysosomal degradation (Möller et al. 2021). The effect of electroosmotic solvent flow on the binding of a neutral molecule [beta-cyclodextrin (betaCD)] to sites within alpha-hemolysin pore was investigated. Mutant α-hemolysin pores were used to which betaCD can bind from either entrance and through which the direction of water flow can be controlled by choosing the charge selectivity of the pore and the polarity of the applied potential. The Kd values for betaCD for individual mutant pores varied by >100-fold with the applied potential over a range of -120 to +120 mV (Gu et al. 2003). Alpha-hemolysin can be incorporated into bicelles (Dziubak and Sęk 2023). It exhibits long-term memory with respect to ion channel kinetics (Silva et al. 2023).