( ing on the ability of botox to act on a...)Scientists reveal how deadly toxin hijacks cells

ing on the ability of botox to act on a localized group of muscles, doctors have strategically used the toxin to treat an array of medical troubles, including migraine headaches, chronic inflammation and even stuttering. "I don't think there's a neuromuscular junction that hasn't been inhibited by injecting with botox A," says Chapman.

Chapman and his team located the exact molecular gateway through which botox penetrates cells by gathering clues from earlier research that pointed to the potential importance of tiny neural storage bins known as "synaptic vesicles." Situated at nerve endings, synaptic vesicles continually work to store and release neurotransmitters.

Dozens of proteins, including SV2, work to ensure that vesicles function properly. With standard screening experiments known as "entry assays," the scientists were able to zero in on SV2. To confirm that result, they acquired mice that were genetically engineered to carry reduced amounts of SV2. Without that protein around, the researchers found that botox was unable to wreak havoc.

Co-author Felix Yeh, a UW-Madison graduate student who works with Chapman, says that researchers have so far found three of the seven protein receptors that allow the different types of botulinum toxins into cells. "One goal at the Chapman laboratory is to identify the remaining receptors," Yeh says.

Other participating co-authors included Eric Johnson, a UW-Madison professor of food microbiology and toxicology; William Tepp, a UW-Madison senior research specialist in the department of food microbiology and toxicology; Camin Dean, a UW-Madison postdoctoral fellow in physiology; and Roger Janz, a researcher with joint appointments at W.M. Keck Center for Learning and Memory and the department of neurobiology and anatomy at the University of Texas-Houston Medical School.

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Source:University of Wisconsin-Madison


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