Clostridium botulinum strain Osaka05, which has been isolated from an infant patient with botulism in Japan, is the first strain producing botulinum neurotoxin subtype B6. Here, we report the draft genome sequence of C. botulinum Osaka05.

objective botulism is the acute, descending, flaccid paralysis that results when the neurotoxin of clostridium botulinum blocks neuromuscular transmission. c botulinum toxin is the most poisonous substance that blocks neuromuscular transmission and causes death through airway and respiratory muscle paralysis; all forms of botulism manifest neurologically as asymmetric, descending, flaccid paral...

Botulinal neurotoxin continues to be a concern in food safety. The molecular biology of botulinal neurotoxin gene expression in Clostridium botuli-num is poorly understood. In this study, the transcriptional and translational kinetics of expression of type A botulinal neurotoxin by C. botulinum type A strains Hall A, 62A, and NCTC 2916 were determined during 96 hours of growth. Strains were gro...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this article is to review the mechanism of action, physiological effects, and therapeutic applications of botulinum neurotoxins in the head and neck area. STUDY DESIGN An extensive literature search was performed using keywords. The resulting articles were analyzed for relevance in four areas: overview on botulinum neurotoxins, the role of botulinum neurotoxins in the man...

Cervical dystonia is the most common form of focal dystonia characterized by involuntary muscle contractions causing abnormal movements and posturing of the head and neck and is associated with significant pain. Botulinum toxin is considered first-line therapy in the treatment of pain and abnormal head posturing associated with cervical dystonia. There are currently three botulinum toxin type A...

Intracellular protein transport routes can be studied using toxins that exploit these to enter cells. BoNTA (botulinum neurotoxin type A) is a protease that binds to peripheral nerve terminals, becomes endocytosed and causes prolonged blockade of transmitter release by cleaving SNAP-25 (synaptosome-associated protein of 25 kDa). Retrograde transport of the toxin has been suggested, but not of t...

The supply of synaptic vesicles in the nerve terminal is maintained by a temporally linked balance of exo- and endocytosis. Tetanus and botulinum neurotoxins block neurotransmitter release by the enzymatic cleavage of proteins identified as critical for synaptic vesicle exocytosis. We show here that botulinum neurotoxin A is unique in that the toxin-induced block in exocytosis does not arrest v...

Botulinum Neurotoxin (BoNT) produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum as a complex with NAPs causes botulism. It has been known that the NAPs protect the toxin from both extremes of pHs and proteases of the GI tract. In an attempt to emulate the physiological conditions encountered by the toxin, we examined BoNT/A, BoNT/A complex, and NAPs under different pH conditions and monitored their...

A detailed molecular understanding of botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT)/host-cell-receptor interactions is fundamental both for developing strategies against botulism and for generating improved BoNT variants for medical applications. The X-ray crystal structure of the receptor-binding domain (HC) of BoNT/A1 in complex with the luminal domain (LD) of its neuronal receptor SV2C revealed only few speci...