Batrachotoxin (BTX) is a steroidal alkaloid that causes Na+ channels to open persistently. This toxin has been used widely as a tool for studying Na+ channel gating processes and for estimating Na+ channel density. In this report we used point mutations to identify critical residues involved in BTX binding and to examine if such mutations affect channel gating. We show that a single asparagine ...

BACKGROUND Botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) has been reported to be effective for the therapy for migraine. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of BTX-A on the immunoreactive levels of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and substance P (SP) in the jugular plasma and medulla oblongata of migraine in rats induced by nitroglycerin (NTG), and then to evaluate and compare the e...

Squid optic nerve sodium channels were characterized in planar bilayers in the presence of batrachotoxin (BTX). The channel exhibits a conductance of 20 pS in symmetrical 200 mM NaCl and behaves as a sodium electrode. The single-channel conductance saturates with increasing the concentration of sodium and the channel conductance vs. sodium concentration relation is well described by a simple re...

Brevetoxin-1 (BTX-1), a marine toxin mostly produced by the dinoflagellatae Karenia brevis, has caused the death of marine organisms and has had numerous toxicological effects on human health. Hence, it is very necessary to develop a rapid, economical, and reliable immunoassay method for BTX-1 detection. In this study, two kinds of complete antigen were synthesized using the succinic anhydride ...

Botulinum toxin (BTX) is a neurotoxin, and its injection in masticatory muscles induces muscle weakness and paralysis. This paralytic effect of BTX induces growth retardation of the maxillofacial bones, changes in dental eruption and occlusion state, and facial asymmetry. Using masticatory muscle paralysis and its effect via BTX, BTX can be used for the correction of malocclusion after orthogna...

background: we aimed to study the curative effects of botulinum a toxin (btx-a) on the treatment of post-herpetic neuralgia (pnh). methods: we enrolled 58 pnh patients and treated them with hypodermic injection of btx-a in xiangyang no.1 people’s hospital, hubei university of medicine, hubei, china. we measured and compared the visual analog score (vas), neuropathy pain scale (nps), quality of ...

When binding of 125I-alpha bungarotoxin (125I-alpha BTX) to hypothalamic membranes is observed over a wide range of concentrations, 3 binding sites can be identified, with estimated equilibrium dissociation constants (Kds) of 4.1 X 10(-11) M, 6.2 X 10(-10) M, and 9.1 X 10(-7) M for high-, low-, and very-low-affinity interactions, respectively. The densities of the high- and low-affinity sites w...

Botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) has been used to treat several neurological conditions such as sialorrhea, hyperhydrosis, dystonia, hemifacial spasm, spasticity and pain. Although spasticity has been successfully treated with BTX-A, few are the authors studying the use of BTX-A to treat shoulder pain secondary to stroke. In order to study if BTX-A is effective to treat post-stroke shoulder pain,...

The crystal structure of a pentameric α7 ligand-binding domain chimaera with bound α-btx (α-bungarotoxin) showed that of the five conserved aromatic residues in α7, only Tyr¹⁸⁴ in loop C of the ligand-binding site was required for high-affinity binding. To determine whether the contribution of Tyr¹⁸⁴ depends on local residues, we generated mutations in an α7/5HT(3A) (5-hydroxytryptamine type 3A...

BACKGROUND The purpose of the meta-analysis was to evaluate the efficiency of therapeutic botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) in the prevention of maxillofacial and neck scars. METHODS AND FINDINGS Information came from the following electronic databases: Medline, PubMed, Cochrane Library, and EMBASE (time was ended by August 31, 2015) to retrieve RCTs evaluating the effect of the BTX-A for hypert...