Study helps explain why botulinum toxin is...( such a treatment could be used to slow...)

Overall, the research improves our knowledge of a devilishly clever toxin, says Dong. Botulinum is an enzyme - a biological catalyst -- that can move through a cell, breaking one protein molecule and quickly attacking another. Botulinum toxin attacks communications between nerve cells, "one of the most sensitive parts of the animal physiology," Dong says. "That provides an efficient way to immobilize an animal, far easier than targeting muscles directly."

Another reason for botulinum toxin's extraordinary power becomes clear from this study, Dong says. The toxin is only able to attach to a nerve cell that is working. "If the synapse between two nerve cells is not active, all the receptors will be hiding inside the cells. But a synapse that controls a very important muscle must be firing all the time, and it will be exposing more receptors, and the toxin will therefore target them."

Botulinum toxin, he says, "Only goes where it can be effective. It's like a smart bomb."

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Contact: Edwin Chapman
chapman@physiology.wisc.edu
608-263-1762
University of Wisconsin-Madison
13-Dec-2006