Definition, Serotypes, and Subtypes
The botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) form a family of protein neurotoxins endowed with a set of particular properties that have made them powerful therapeutics for a variety of human syndromes. Their development as medicines is still undergoing. They are synthesized by different Clostridia though bacteria of other phyla may harbor the gene encoding for BoNTs. They consist of two chains (L, 50 kDa and H, 100 kDa) linked by a single interchain disulfide bond (Fig. 1a). They are produced in eight different serotypes (indicated by letters BoNT/A, /B, /C, /D, /E, /F, /G, and /X) (Rossetto et al. 2014; Dong et al. 2019). In addition many subtypes of a serotype are known (dubbed with a suffix number: BoNT/A1, BoNT/A2, etc.) plus chimeric neurotoxins (BoNT/CD, BoNT/DC, BoNT/FA). Thus, the BoNT family comprises several dozens of proteins, and their number is growing as result of massive DNA sequencing. None the less all BoNTs share a four-domain structure, with...
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The work in the authors’ laboratory was supported by the grant NIB-2 and RIPANE of the Ministry of Defence and from grants provided by the University of Padova.
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Rossetto, O., Montecucco, C. (2020). Botulinum Neurotoxins. In: Offermanns, S., Rosenthal, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Molecular Pharmacology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21573-6_10014-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21573-6_10014-1
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