Methods and compositions for the treatment of pancreatitis

1. A composition for the treatment of acute pancreatitis in a mammal comprising, a first element comprising a binding element able to specifically bind a pancreatic acinar cell CCK receptor under physiological conditions, a second element comprising a translocation element derived from a clostridial neurotoxin heavy chain able to facilitate the transfer of a polypeptide across a vesicular membrane, and a third element comprising a therapeutic element derived from a clostridial neurotoxin light chain able, when present in the cytoplasm of a pancreatic cell, to inhibit enzymatic secretion by said pancreatic cell.

2. The composition of claim 1 wherein said therapeutic element will cleave a SNARE protein, wherein cleavage of said SNARE protein inhibits said secretion.

3. The composition of claim 2 wherein said SNARE protein is selected from the group consisting of syntaxin, SNAP-25 and VAMP.

4. The composition of claim 2 wherein said CCK receptor is the human CCK A receptor.

5. The composition of claim 4 wherein the binding element of said therapeutic polypeptide comprises a human CCK A amino acid sequence modified by the presence of a C-terminal amidated phenylalanine and a sulfated tyrosine at the position 7 residues from the carboxyl terminus.

6. The composition of claim 5 wherein said CCK A amino acid sequence comprises SEQ ID NO: 6.

7. The composition of claim 6 wherein said CCK A amino acid sequence comprises SEQ ID NO: 5.

8. The composition of claim 6 wherein said CCK A amino acid sequence comprises SEQ ID NO: 4.

9. The composition of claim 6 wherein said CCK A amino acid sequence comprises SEQ ID NO: 3.

10. The composition of claim 6 wherein said CCK A amino acid sequence comprises SEQ ID NO: 2.