Botulinum neurotoxin serotype D attacks neurons via two carbohydrate-binding sites in a ganglioside-dependent manner.
Strotmeier, J., Lee, K., Volker, A.K., Mahrhold, S., Zong, Y., Zeiser, J., Zhou, J., Pich, A., Bigalke, H., Binz, T., Rummel, A., Jin, R.(2010) Biochem J 431: 207-216
- PubMed: 20704566 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1042/BJ20101042
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
3OBR, 3OBT - PubMed Abstract: 
The extraordinarily high toxicity of botulinum neurotoxins primarily results from their specific binding and uptake into neurons. At motor neurons, the seven BoNT (botulinum neurotoxin) serotypes A-G inhibit acetylcholine release leading to flaccid paralysis. Uptake of BoNT/A, B, E, F and G requires a dual interaction with gangliosides and the synaptic vesicle proteins synaptotagmin or SV2 (synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2), whereas little is known about the cell entry mechanisms of the serotypes C and D, which display the lowest amino acid sequence identity compared with the other five serotypes. In the present study we demonstrate that the neurotoxicity of BoNT/D depends on the presence of gangliosides by employing phrenic nerve hemidiaphragm preparations derived from mice expressing the gangliosides GM3, GM2, GM1 and GD1a, or only GM3 [a description of our use of ganglioside nomenclature is given in Svennerholm (1994) Prog. Brain Res. 101, XI-XIV]. High-resolution crystal structures of the 50 kDa cell-binding domain of BoNT/D alone and in complex with sialic acid, as well as biological analyses of single-site BoNT/D mutants identified two carbohydrate-binding sites. One site is located at a position previously identified in BoNT/A, B, E, F and G, but is lacking the conserved SXWY motif. The other site, co-ordinating one molecule of sialic acid, resembles the second ganglioside-binding pocket (the sialic-acid-binding site) of TeNT (tetanus neurotoxin).
Organizational Affiliation: 
Institut für Toxikologie, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Carl-Neuberg-Strasse 1, Hannover, Germany.