Temperature Effects on Botulinum A Toxin.

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Abstract
The thermal inactivation curves of 3 preparations of botulinum A toxin at pH 6.9 and 50[degree] were characteristic of a minimum two-component system. One of the preparations, which had been crystallized, showed the same kind of curve at 60[degree] but it failed to inactivate in 30 minutes at 40[degree]. Removal of gelatin from the buffer and adsorption of the hemagglutinin from the toxin did hot affect the shape of the inactivation curve. Toxicity assays were performed with goldfish, Carassius auratus. Heating the toxin for 2 minutes at 60[degree] caused the sedimentation diagram in the ultracentrifuge at pH 6.9 to become more heterogeneous accompanied by an increase in area of the more slowly sedimenting boundary and a decrease in area of the more rapidly sedimenting boundary. The data are interpreted by the hypothesis that heating produces at least two toxic entities which have different thermal inactivation rates.

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