Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are the most poisonous substances known and cause the deadly disease botulism. There are seven known serotypes of BoNT, and four (BoNT A, B, E, F) can cause botulism in humans. A mass spectrometry based method called Endopep-MS has been effective in detecting and serotype differentiation of BoNT. The method is rapid and detects attomole/mL BoNT in serum and stool. Endopep-MS uses monoclonal antibodies to extract the toxin and mass spectrometric detection of the enzymatic activity of BoNT to differentiate the serotype. To aid epidemiologic investigations, the BoNT subtype is then determined using proteomic techniques
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