Title: M17 human neuroblastoma cell as a cell model for investigation of Botulinum Neurotoxin A activity and evaluation of BoNT/A specific antibody

Authors: Jong-O Lee, Johanna Rosenfield, Saul Tzipori, Jong-Beak Park

Addresses: Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Tufts Unversity Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, 200 Westboro Road, North Grafton, MA 01536, USA. ' Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Tufts Unversity Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, 200 Westboro Road, North Grafton, MA 01536, USA. ' Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Tufts Unversity Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, 200 Westboro Road, North Grafton, MA 01536, USA. ' Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Tufts Unversity Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, 200 Westboro Road, North Grafton, MA 01536, USA

Abstract: Since BoNTs are potential biothreat agents, efforts are being made to develop therapeutic countermeasures for which sensitive in vitro models are required to evaluate the efficacy of potential therapeutic agents. In this report, we tested human neuroblastoma cell lines for their susceptibility to BoNT toxicity and demonstrated the application of these cells to measure the neutralising activity of a BoNT-specific antibody. We demonstrated that SK-N-BE(2)M17 cells are highly sensitive to BoNT/A and /C intoxication and can be used as a cell-based assay to investigate the molecular mechanism of BoNT/A intoxication and to quantitate the neutralising activity of antibodies. [Received 26 October 2007; Accepted 12 December 2007]

Keywords: botulinum neurotoxins; BoNT; human neuroblastoma cells; cell model; SNAP-25 cleavage; norepinephrine release; neutralising activities; antibodies; botulism; cell-based assays.

DOI: 10.1504/TBJ.2008.018955

The Botulinum Journal, 2008 Vol.1 No.1, pp.135 - 152

Published online: 25 Jun 2008 *

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