Cry5Ba

Cry5Ba (also known as Cry5B) is a pore-forming crystal protein produced by the soil bacterium *Bacillus thuringiensis* during sporulation. It is being developed as a novel, safe, and highly effective anthelmintic therapeutic for the treatment of soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections, including hookworms (*Ancylostoma* and *Necator* species), roundworms (*Ascaris* species), and whipworms (*Trichuris* species). Cry5Ba functions by binding specifically to invertebrate-specific glycolipid receptors and cadherin on the midgut epithelial cells of nematodes, leading to pore formation, osmotic lysis, and cell death. Developed by the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School in collaboration with the University of California, San Diego, and partners like Kao Corporation and PATH, Cry5Ba is formulated as inactivated bacteria with cytosolic crystals (IBaCC) or purified cytosolic crystals (PCC) to enable stable, scalable, and cost-effective oral delivery.

Other names

140 kDa crystal proteinCry5BCry-5BCry 5BCry5Ba1Cry-5Ba1Cry 5Ba1Crystalline entomocidal protoxinInsecticidal delta-endotoxin CryVB(a)Pesticidal crystal protein Cry5Bacry5Bacry-5Bacry 5BacryVB(a)