Botulinum toxin is a highly potent oral and inhalation poison, which means that the toxin must have an efficient mechanism for penetration of epithelial barriers. To date, three models for toxin passage across epithelial barriers have been proposed: (i) the toxin itself undergoes binding and transcytosis; (ii) an auxiliary protein, HA35, transports toxin from the apical to the basal side of epi...

OBJECTIVES In long-term botulinum neurotoxin treatment, loss of therapeutic efficacy may occur due to neutralising antibody formation. Preliminary results with incobotulinumtoxinA, a preparation free of complexing/accessory proteins, have indicated a low antigenicity. We hypothesised that continuous treatment with this botulinum neurotoxin preparation would not result in an increase in neutrali...

Existing methods for detection of food-borne pathogens and their toxins are frequently time-consuming, require specialized equipment, and involve lengthy culture procedures and/or animal testing and are thus unsuitable for a rapid response to an emergency public health situation. A series of simple and rapid affinity immunochromatography column (AICC) assays were developed to detect Clostridium...

BACKGROUND Botulinum neurotoxin induces healing in patients with idiopathic fissure. The optimal dosage is not well established. AIM To compare the efficacy and tolerability of two different formulations of type A botulinum neurotoxin, and to provide more evidence with regard to the choice of dosage regimens. METHODS Symptomatic adults with chronic anal fissure were enrolled in a randomized...

Clostridial neurotoxins are zinc endopeptidases that block neurotransmission and have been shown to cleave, in vitro, specific proteins involved in synaptic vesicle docking and/or fusion. We have used immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting to demonstrate alterations in toxin substrates in intact neurons under conditions of toxin-induced blockade of neurotransmitter release. Vesicle-associated ...

The protein receptor for Clostridium botulinum type B neurotoxin was purified 340-fold from rat synaptosomes by successive chromatography on DEAE-Sepharose, phenyl-Toyopearl, and heparin-Toyopearl columns. 125I-Labeled neurotoxin bound to lipid vesicles containing the protein receptor and ganglioside GT1b or GD1a. The reconstituted receptor showed the same affinities as the native receptor on s...

A neurotoxin, designated toxin LY, has been isolated from the venom of the Egyptian cobra (Naja haje haje) by gradient chromatography on Amberlite CG-50, and has been further purified by gel filtration on Sephadex G-50. Homogeneity was verified by free boundary electrophoresis, acrylamide gel electrophoresis, sedimentation velocity, amino acid analysis, and end group analysis. Toxin LY has a se...