Notably, excessive release of inflammatory messengers is thought to contribute to diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, diabetes etc. The expansion of its application to these medical conditions is prevented because the major non-neuronal SNAP-25 isoform responsible for exocytosis, SNAP-23, is, in humans, virtually resistant to BoNT/A. Here, SNAP23 is linked to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.