Clostridium botulinum produces the most lethal toxins known to man, as such they are high risk terrorist threats, and alarmingly there is no approved therapeutic. We report the first cross-over small molecule inhibitor of these neurotoxins and propose a mechanism by which it may impart its inhibitory activity.
Department of Chemistry, and The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.