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Journal ArticleDOI

Crystal structure of botulinum neurotoxin type A and implications for toxicity.

TLDR
The crystal structure of the entire 1,285 amino acid di-chain neurotoxin was determined and the toxin appears as a hybrid of varied structural motifs and suggests a modular assembly of functional subunits to yield pathogenesis.
Abstract
Botulinum neurotoxin type A (BoNT/A) is the potent disease agent in botulism, a potential biological weapon and an effective therapeutic drug for involuntary muscle disorders. The crystal structure of the entire 1,285 amino acid di-chain neurotoxin was determined at 3.3 A resolution. The structure reveals that the translocation domain contains a central pair of alpha-helices 105 A long and a approximately 50 residue loop or belt that wraps around the catalytic domain. This belt partially occludes a large channel leading to a buried, negative active site--a feature that calls for radically different inhibitor design strategies from those currently used. The fold of the translocation domain suggests a mechanism of pore formation different from other toxins. Lastly, the toxin appears as a hybrid of varied structural motifs and suggests a modular assembly of functional subunits to yield pathogenesis.

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Patent

Activatable recombinant neurotoxins

TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed a mixture of activatable recombinant neurotoxins and polypeptides derived from the recombinant protein synthesis process and nucleic acid-based methods of making them.
Journal ArticleDOI

Dynamin Inhibition Blocks Botulinum Neurotoxin Type A Endocytosis in Neurons and Delays Botulism

TL;DR: It is found that inhibiting dynamin with the novel potent Dynasore analog, Dyngo-4aTM, was sufficient to abolish BoNT/A-Hc internalization and BoNT-induced SNAP25 cleavage in hippocampal neurons and provides a therapeutic avenue for the treatment of botulism and other diseases caused by pathogens sharing dynamin-dependent uptake mechanisms.
Journal ArticleDOI

Glycosylated SV2 and Gangliosides as Dual Receptors for Botulinum Neurotoxin Serotype F

TL;DR: BoNT/F neuronal discrimination involves the recognition of ganglioside and protein (glycosylated SV2) carbohydrate moieties, providing a structural basis for the high affinity and specificity of BoNT/f for neurons.
Journal ArticleDOI

The structures of the H(C) fragment of tetanus toxin with carbohydrate subunit complexes provide insight into ganglioside binding.

TL;DR: The crystal structures of native HC and of HC soaked with carbohydrates reveal a number of binding sites and provide insight into the possible mode of ganglioside binding.
Journal ArticleDOI

Plasma membrane localization signals in the light chain of botulinum neurotoxin.

TL;DR: Using confocal microscopy and site-specific mutagenesis, this paper determined that the protease domain of BoNT/A light chain localizes in a punctate manner to the plasma membrane, colocalizing with the cleaved product, SNAP25197.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

MOLSCRIPT: a program to produce both detailed and schematic plots of protein structures

TL;DR: The MOLSCRIPT program as discussed by the authors produces plots of protein structures using several different kinds of representations, including simple wire models, ball-and-stick models, CPK models and text labels.
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Improved methods for building protein models in electron density maps and the location of errors in these models.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe strategies and tools that help to alleviate this problem and simplify the model-building process, quantify the goodness of fit of the model on a per-residue basis and locate possible errors in peptide and side-chain conformations.
Journal ArticleDOI

Protein folding and association: insights from the interfacial and thermodynamic properties of hydrocarbons.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated in this work that the surface tension, water‐organic solvent, transfer‐free energies and the thermodynamics of melting of linear alkanes provide fundamental insights into the nonpolar driving forces for protein folding and protein binding reactions.
Journal ArticleDOI

Improved Fourier coefficients for maps using phases from partial structures with errors

TL;DR: In this article, a method is given to estimate the parameter σA in these phase probability expressions from the observed and calculated structure factor amplitudes, from which one can estimate the mean coordinate error for the model, and when there are coordinate errors, a new expression for the non-centric Fourier coefficients is required to suppress this model bias.
Journal ArticleDOI

Atomic structure of the ectodomain from HIV-1 gp41

TL;DR: X-ray crystallography determines the structure of the protease-resistant part of a gp41 ectodomain solubilized with a trimeric GCN4 coiled coil in place of the amino-terminal fusion peptide, and suggests a common mechanism for initiating fusion.
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