Volume 11, Number 10, October 2005

Botulinum Neurotoxin Detection and Differentiation by Mass Spectrometry

John R. Barr,* Hercules Moura,* Anne E. Boyer,* Adrian R. Woolfitt,* Suzanne R. Kalb,* Antonis Pavlopoulos,* Lisa G. McWilliams,† Jurgen G. Schmidt,‡ Rodolfo A. Martinez,‡ and David L. Ashley*
*Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; †Battelle Memorial Institute, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; and ‡Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA

Figure 1. Synaptobrevin on the synaptic vesicle must interact with syntaxin and SNAP (synaptosomal-associated protein)-25 on the neuronal membrane for fusion to occur, which allows the nerve impulse to be delivered across the synaptic junction. The botulinum neurotoxin serotypes cleave the peptide bonds at specific sites on the 3 proteins, as indicated. Cleavage of any 1 of these proteins prevents vesicle membrane docking and nerve impulse transmission.

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This page last reviewed August 24, 2005

Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal
National Center for Infectious Diseases
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention