BIOL 163 |
| Clostridium botulinum, the agent responsible for the deadly food poisoning botulism disease, produces the most toxic protein, botulinum neurotoxin, known to the mankind. All of the serotypes (A-G) of BoNT secreted from the bacteria are not in free form but in a complex form along with one or more neurotoxin associated proteins (NAPs), which play a protective role against adversarial environmental conditions such as heat or acidity and proteases in the gastrointestinal tract. In case of type A C. botulinum, a 33 kDa protein that accounts for the largest proportion among the NAPs, referred to as Hn-33, was found to be resistant to protease digestion such as trypsin. We have now discovered a novel role of Hn-33, resistant to Cathepsin D, L, lysosomal proteases. This finding suggests that resistance of Hn-33 to lysosomal proteases may influence its biological action. The work was supported by a DoD/Army Contract No. W911NF-06-1-0095. |
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Frontiers in Chemical Biology
5:00 PM-7:00 PM, Wednesday, August 22, 2007 BCEC -- Exhibit Hall - B2, Poster
Division of Biological Chemistry |