2018/10/20 by Jonathan Davies, Sai Liu, K. Ravi Acharya · 29 citations
Medicine · Neuroscience · #Botulinum Toxin and Related Neurological Disorders #Hereditary Neurological Disorders #Neurological disorders and treatments #Botulism #Receptor #Serotype #Clostridium botulinum #Biology #Botulinum neurotoxin #Peptide sequence #Virology #Biochemistry #Toxin #Microbiology #Gene
paper · pdf · doi:10.3390/toxins10100421
published in Toxins 10(10), 421 (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)
openalex publication_date 2018/10/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are categorised into immunologically distinct serotypes BoNT/A to /G). Each serotype can also be further divided into subtypes based on differences in amino acid sequence. BoNTs are ~150 kDa proteins comprised of three major functional domains: an N-terminal zinc metalloprotease light chain (LC), a translocation domain (HN), and a binding domain (HC). The HC is responsible for targeting the BoNT to the neuronal cell membrane, and each serotype has evolved to bind via different mechanisms to different target receptors. Most structural characterisations to date have focussed on the first identified subtype within each serotype (e.g., BoNT/A1). Subtype differences within BoNT serotypes can affect intoxication, displaying different botulism symptoms in vivo, and less emphasis has been placed on investigating these variants. This review outlines the receptors for each BoNT serotype and describes the basis for the highly specific targeting of neuronal cell membranes. Understanding receptor binding is of vital importance, not only for the generation of novel therapeutics but also for understanding how best to protect from intoxication.