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A chip-based assay for botulinum neurotoxin A activity in pharmaceutical preparations

  • Applied genetics and molecular biotechnology
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Abstract

The production of botulinum neurotoxin A (BoNT/A) for therapeutic and cosmetic applications requires precise determination of batch potency, and the enzymatic activity of BoNT/A light chain is a crucial index that can be measured in vitro. We previously established a SNAP-25 chip-based assay using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) that is more sensitive than the standard mouse bioassay for the quantification of BoNT/A activity. We have now adapted this procedure for pharmaceutical preparations. The optimized SPR assay allowed multiple measurements on a single chip, including the kinetics of substrate cleavage. The activity of five different batches of a pharmaceutical BoNT/A preparation was determined in a blind study by SPR and found to be in agreement with data from the in vivo mouse lethality assay. Biosensor detection of specific proteolytic products has the potential to accurately monitor the activity of pharmaceutical BoNT/A preparations, and a single chip can be used to assay more than 100 samples.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the INSERM and CNRS. The authors would like to thank IPSEN Biopharm for supplying Dysport samples. We thank Dr. Raymond Miquelis for valuable discussions and advices.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INSERM, UMR_S 1072, 13015, Marseille, France

    Christian Lévêque, Yves Maulet, Michael Seagar & Oussama El Far

  2. CNRS, UMR 7286, Plate-Forme de Recherche en Neurosciences PFRN, 13015, Marseille, France

    Géraldine Ferracci & Chloé Grand-Masson

  3. Aix-Marseille Université, 13015, Marseille, France

    Christian Lévêque, Géraldine Ferracci, Yves Maulet, Chloé Grand-Masson, Michael Seagar & Oussama El Far

Authors
  1. Christian Lévêque
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  2. Géraldine Ferracci
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  3. Yves Maulet
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  4. Chloé Grand-Masson
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  5. Michael Seagar
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  6. Oussama El Far
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Correspondence to Oussama El Far.

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Lévêque, C., Ferracci, G., Maulet, Y. et al. A chip-based assay for botulinum neurotoxin A activity in pharmaceutical preparations. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 99, 4355–4360 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-6438-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-6438-z

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