Non-toxic fragment of botulinum neurotoxin type A and monomethyl auristatin E conjugate for targeted therapy for neuroendocrine tumors.

Surgical resection is the only cure for neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). However, widespread metastases have already occured by the time of initial diagnosis in many cases making complete surgical removal impossible. We developed a recombinant heavy-chain receptor binding domain (rHCR) of botulinum neurotoxin type A that can specifically target synaptic vesicle 2 (SV2), a surface receptor abundantly expressed in multiple neuroendocrine tumors. Expression of neuroendocrine differentiation markers chromogranin A (CgA) and achaete-scute complex 1 (ASCL1) were signficantly reduced when treated with rHCR. rHCR conjugated to the antimitotic agent monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) significantly suppressed proliferation of pancreatic carcinoid (BON) and medullary thyroid cancer cells (MZ) at concentrations of 500 and 300 nM respectively, while no growth suppression was observed in pulmonary fibroblasts and cortical neuron control cell lines. In vivo, rHCR-MMAE significantly reduced tumor volume in mouse xenografts with no observed adverse effects. These data suggest recombinant HCR (rHCR) of BoNT/A preferentially targets neuroendocrine cancer without the neurotoxicity of the full BoNT/A and that SV2 is a specific and promising target for delivering drugs to neuroendocrine tumors.

Development of a Highly Sensitive Cell-Based Assay for Detecting Botulinum Neurotoxin Type A through Neural Culture Media Optimization.

Botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) is the most lethal naturally produced neurotoxin. Due to the extreme toxicity, BoNTs are implicated in bioterrorism, while the specific mechanism of action and long-lasting effect was found to be medically applicable in treating various neurological disorders. Therefore, for both public and patient safety, a highly sensitive, physiologic, and specific assay is needed. In this paper, we show a method for achieving a highly sensitive cell-based assay for BoNT/A detection using the motor neuron-like continuous cell line NG108-15. To achieve high sensitivity, we performed a media optimization study evaluating three commercially available neural supplements in combination with retinoic acid, purmorphamine, transforming growth factor ß1 (TGFß1), and ganglioside GT1b. We found nonlinear combinatorial effects on BoNT/A detection sensitivity, achieving an EC50 of 7.4 U ± 1.5 SD (or ~7.9 pM). The achieved detection sensitivity is comparable to that of assays that used primary and stem cell-derived neurons as well as the mouse lethality assay.

A microscale neuron and Schwann cell coculture model for increasing detection sensitivity of botulinum neurotoxin type A.

Botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) is a potent and specific biomolecule that is both implicated as a potential threat in bioterrorism and used in therapeutics. Highly sensitive and robust assays that measure BoNT activity are needed to manage outbreak or controlled distribution of BoNT. Current in vivo and in vitro assays have limitations, including high costs and variability for mouse bioassays, extensive preparations for primary and stem cell-derived neurons, and inherent low sensitivity for cell lines. Sensitivity of cell lines can be increased by direct differentiation and with their physiological relevance (compared with cell-free strategies) and robustness (compared with primary cell strategies); adopting cell lines is an attractive alternative to in vivo assays. Here, we present two distinct strategies that improved sensitivity of a cell line to BoNT serotype A (BoNT/A) without direct differentiation. We developed a cell-based BoNT assay using microscale culture and coculture of neuronal and Schwann cell lines, NG108-15 and S16, respectively, to improve both sensitivity and physiological relevance. Results showed that NG108-15 and S16 coculture decreased EC50 from 12.5 to 0.8ng/µl (p < 0.001) in macroscale and from 2.6 to 1.1ng/µl (p = 0.006) in microscale. In addition, NG108-15 monoculture at microscale decreased EC50 from 12.5 to 2.6ng/µl (p < 0.001) compared with macroscale. Finally, controlling the spatial arrangement of microscale coculture revealed that S16-derived soluble factors can increase sensitivity. Thus, our study demonstrates two distinct strategies for increasing the sensitivity of a cell line to BoNT using coculture and microscale culture, thereby advancing assay technology for BoNT detection.