Botulinum neurotoxin: Where are we with detection technologies?

Abstract

Because of its high toxicity, botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) poses a significant risk to humans and it represents a possible biological warfare agent. Nevertheless, BoNT serotypes A and B are considered an effective treatment for a variety of neurological disorders. The growing applicability of BoNT as a drug, and its potential use as a biological threat agent, highlight the urgent need to develop sensitive detection assays and therapeutic counter measures. In the last decade, significant progress has been made in BoNT detection technologies but none have fully replaced the mouse lethality assay, the current “gold standard”. Recently, new advances in robotics and the availability of new reagents have allowed development of methods for rapid toxin analysis. These technologies while promising need further refinement.

Keywords::

• Botulism
• botulinum neurotoxin
• BoNT
• detection
• mouse bioassay
• immunoassay
• ELISA
• FRET assay
• mass spectrometry
• PCR
• DNA microarray
• endopeptidase
• flow cytometry
• cell based assay

Acknowledgements

Authors thank Dr. Eric W. Brown for his valuable suggestions and Mr. David Weingaertner for drawing the Figure 1. We offer sincere apologies to authors whose research contribution was not cited because of space limits.

Declaration of interest

This work was supported by funding from the US Department of Homeland Security to SKS and LHS. The views or opinions presented in this review are those of the authors and should not be construed as an official views of the US Food and Drug Administration or of the USDA. The FDA and USDA are an equal opportunity provider and employer.