Botulinum neurotoxins are highly effective therapeutic products. Their therapeutic success results from highly specific and potent inhibition of neurotransmitter release with a duration of action measured in months. These same properties, however, make the botulinum neurotoxins the most potent acute lethal toxins known. Their toxicity and restricted target cell activity severely limits their cl...

introduction: in a serious brain disorder like alzheimer's disease, the levels of acetylcholine (ach) drop significantly. the gradual death of cholinergic brain cells leads to a profound loss of memory and learning ability. acetylcholine is the chemical messenger that sends messages from one neuron to another in the area of the brain used for memory. many of the current medications act to ...

Sea anemone neurotoxins are peptides that interact with Na(+) and K(+) channels, resulting in specific alterations on their functions. Some of these neurotoxins (1ROO, 1BGK, 2K9E, 1BEI) are important for the treatment of about 80 autoimmune disorders because of their specificity for Kv1.3 channel. The aim of this study was to identify the common residues among these neurotoxins by computational...

Peptide neurotoxins found in animal venoms have gained great interest in the field of neurotransmission. As they are high affinity ligands for calcium, potassium and sodium channels, they have become useful tools for studying channel structure and activity. Peptide neurotoxins represent the clinical potential of ion-channel modulators across several therapeutic fields, especially in developing ...

The rapidly growing number of botulinum neurotoxin sequences poses the problem of the possible evolutionary significance of the variability of these superpotent neurotoxins for toxin-producing Clostridium species. To progress in the understanding of this remarkable phenomenon, we suggest that researchers should (i) abandon an anthropocentric view of these neurotoxins as human botulism-causing a...

Two lethal proteins, which specifically bind to the nAChR from Torpedo californica, were isolated from the venom of Pseudonaja textilis, the common brown snake from Australia. The isolated proteins have masses of 6236 and 6345 Da and are structurally related to short-chain neurotoxins from other elapids. Six cDNAs encoding isoforms of related neurotoxins were cloned using the RT-PCR of the veno...

The interaction of botulinum neurotoxin serotypes A, B and E with membranes of different lipid compositions was examined by photolabelling with two photoreactive phosphatidylcholine analogues that monitor the polar region and the hydrophobic core of the lipid bilayer. At neutral pH the neurotoxins interacted both with the polar head groups and with fatty acid chains of phospholipids. At acidic ...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this article is to review the mechanism of action, physiological effects, and therapeutic applications of botulinum neurotoxins in the head and neck area. STUDY DESIGN An extensive literature search was performed using keywords. The resulting articles were analyzed for relevance in four areas: overview on botulinum neurotoxins, the role of botulinum neurotoxins in the man...