Bloomberg News 
(1/20, Lopatto) reported that Shiga, "a deadly toxin produced by
certain kinds of E. coli, including those that caused an outbreak in
Europe last year, can be combated using the element manganese, according
to research" in Science. Shiga causes "severe diarrhea and kidney
damage," and manganese protects against the toxin "by blocking the path
the Shiga toxin takes to shut down the cell." Researchers found that "in
a study, mice dosed with manganese were resistant to the poison" and
that "manganese...protected cells against
as much as 4,000 times the amount of that toxin required to cause death
in the lab."
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