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...

Botulinum neurotoxin is the most potent poison known worldwide. Over past two centuries, its structure and functions have been studied in detail, obtained pure form. Knowledge of mechanisms action botulinum has determined directions possible use: negative, as a biological (toxin) weapon, positive, an agent that eliminates pathological muscle hypertonicity neuropathic pain can be used for aesthe...

Clostridium botulinum type E neurotoxin, a single-chain protein of Mr 147,000, was purified and subjected to amino acid sequencing. The same was done for single-chain botulinum type B neurotoxin (Mr 152,000), and for the heavy and light chains (Mr 104,000 and 51,000 respectively) derived from type B by limited trypsin digestion. Twelve to eighteen residues were identified and the following conc...

0022-2836/$ see front matter q 2004 E Present address: J. Gu, San Diego Center, University of California San Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. Abbreviations used: HA, hemagg non-toxic non-hemagglutinin; BoNT neurotoxin; NAP, neurotoxin-associ root-mean-square deviation; TeNT, E-mail address of the correspond [email protected] The hemagglutinating protein HA33 from Clostridium botulinum is assoc...

Botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) is the most poisonous substances known and its eight toxin types (A to H) are distinguished by the inability of polyclonal antibodies that neutralize one toxin type to neutralize any of the other seven toxin types. Infant botulism, an intestinal toxemia orphan disease, is the most common form of human botulism in the United States. It results from swallowed spores of...

BACKGROUND Two decades ago, botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) type A was introduced to the commercial market. Subsequently, the toxin was approved by the FDA to address several neurological syndromes, involving muscle, nerve, and gland hyperactivity. These syndromes have typically been associated with abnormalities in cholinergic transmission. Despite the multiplicity of botulinal serotypes (designat...

Botulinum toxin type A is a high molecular weight protein complex containing active neurotoxin and complexing proteins, the latter of which, it is believed, protect the neurotoxin when in the gastrointestinal tract, and may facilitate its absorption. Comparisons of conventional botulinum toxin type A drugs that include complexing proteins with the complexing protein-free formulation of Xeomin(®...

BACKGROUND Clostridium botulinum produces seven distinct serotypes of botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs). The genes encoding different subtype neurotoxins of serotypes A, B, F and several dual neurotoxin-producing strains have been shown to reside on plasmids, suggesting that intra- and interspecies transfer of BoNT-encoding plasmids may occur. The objective of the present study was to determine whe...

Neuroblastomas constitute a major cause of cancer-related deaths in young children. In recent years, a number of translation-inhibiting enzymes have been evaluated for killing neuroblastoma cells. Here we investigated the potential vulnerability of human neuroblastoma cells to protease activity derived from botulinum neurotoxin type C. We show that following retinoic acid treatment, human neuro...

BACKGROUND Botulinum toxin A has been successfully used in a variety of areas to temporarily obliterate muscle mobility for either functional or aesthetic gain. Tissue expander-based breast reconstruction has been plagued with pain and discomfort. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the role of a neurotoxin (Botulinum toxin A) in expander-based breast reconstruction. M...