Botulinum neurotoxin: New formulations for pharmaceutical use

Botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) is the most poisonous toxin known to humankind and is the cause of the severe disease botulism. BoNT had also become an extraordinarily successful pharmaceutical and is used to treat more than one-hundred diseases including dystonias, pain syndromes, involuntary muscle disorders, headache, and mood disorders. The BoNT molecule used in all applications is BoNT/A1. We have developed new BoNT formulations using subtypes BONT/A2, /A5, and A6 as well as hybrid and chimeric toxins that have advantageous properties compared to /A1. This paper describes the compositions of these novel BoNT formulations and their effects on neuronal cells and animal models. There is much potential in developing BoNT new formulations that have desired properties compared to the current BoNT/A1 used in medicine