Historical Perspectives and Guidelines for Botulinum Neurotoxin Subtype Nomenclature

Michael W Peck (1) , Theresa J Smith (2) , Fabrizio Anniballi (3) , John Austin (4) , Luca Bano (5) , Marite Bradshaw (6) , Paula Cuervo (7) , Luisa W Cheng (8) , Yagmur Derman (9) , Brigitte G Dorner (10) , Audrey Fisher (11) , Karen K Hill (12) , Suzanne R Kalb (13) , Hannu Korkeala (14) , Miia Lindström (14) , Florigio Lista (13) , Carolina Lúquez (13) , Christelle Mazuet (15) , Marco Pirazzini (16) , Michel Popoff (15) , Ornella Rossetto (16) , Andreas Rummel (17) , Dorothea Sesardic (18) , Bal Singh , Sandra C Stringer (1)

1 Institute of Food Research [Norwich]
2 USAMRIID - U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
3 ISS - Istituto Superiore di Sanità
4 Health Canada - Santé Canada
5 IZSVe - Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie
6 University of Wisconsin-Madison
7 UNCUYO - Universidad Nacional de Cuyo [Mendoza]
8 USDA - United States Department of Agriculture
9 Helsingin yliopisto = Helsingfors universitet = University of Helsinki
10 RKI - Robert Koch Institute [Berlin]
11 JHU - Johns Hopkins University
12 LANL - Los Alamos National Laboratory
13 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
14 Immunology and Experimental Medicine, Army Medical and Veterinary Research Center
15 CNR - Centre National de Référence des Bactéries Anaérobies et Botulisme - National Reference Center Anaerobic Bacteria and Botulism
16 Unipd - Università degli Studi di Padova = University of Padua
17 MHH - Medizinische Hochschule Hannover
18 NIBSC - National Institute for Biological Standards and Control

Botulinum neurotoxins are diverse proteins. They are currently represented by at least seven serotypes and more than 40 subtypes. New clostridial strains that produce novel neurotoxin variants are being identified with increasing frequency, which presents challenges when organizing the nomenclature surrounding these neurotoxins. Worldwide, researchers are faced with the possibility that toxins having identical sequences may be given different designations or novel toxins having unique sequences may be given the same designations on publication. In order to minimize these problems, an ad hoc committee consisting of over 20 researchers in the field of botulinum neurotoxin research was convened to discuss the clarification of the issues involved in botulinum neurotoxin nomenclature. This publication presents a historical overview of the issues and provides guidelines for botulinum neurotoxin subtype nomenclature in the future.

Keywords: Clostridium botulinum; botulinum; botulism; guidelines; neurotoxins; nomenclature; subtypes

Domains: Toxicology

Michael W Peck, Theresa J Smith, Fabrizio Anniballi, John Austin, Luca Bano, et al.. Historical Perspectives and Guidelines for Botulinum Neurotoxin Subtype Nomenclature. Toxins, 2017, 9 (1), pp.38 - 38. ⟨10.3390/toxins9010038⟩. ⟨pasteur-01821691⟩