Swiss researchers enhance the effect of Botox by chance
Published: Monday, Dec 18th 2023, 15:30
العودة إلى البث المباشر
By chance, Swiss researchers have discovered a way to enhance the effect of the neurotoxin Botox. The aim was actually to find a kind of antidote, as detailed in a press release issued by the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) on Monday.
The PSI researchers have developed proteins that dock onto the part of the enzyme that is responsible for its effect on the nerves. The idea is that this inhibits the effect.
To the researchers' surprise, however, the opposite occurred: the toxic effect set in even faster than usual, as a study published on Monday in the journal "Nature Communications" shows. "We initially thought we had done something wrong", first author of the study Oneda Leka was quoted as saying in the PSI press release.
Botox as a painkiller
Botulinum toxin A1, or Botox for short, became well known through its use as a cosmetic aid. However, Botox is also used in therapeutic medicine, as the PSI emphasized. For example, to treat pain, spasticity or bladder weakness. Botox is even used in stomach cancer to block the vagus nerve and thus slow down tumor growth.
Botox achieves its effect by cleaving certain proteins that are important for nerve signal transmission. In the research project, the researchers artificially produced small proteins, so-called DARPins, which are supposed to function similarly to antibodies and dock onto the part of the protein that is responsible for cutting other proteins.
Good news
"In vitro - i.e. in the test tube on individual samples - we have also identified a suitable DARPin candidate that inhibits the function of botulinum toxin," said study leader Richard Kammerer. However, in laboratory experiments, and later in mouse muscles, the opposite occurred.
The researchers explain this by the fact that the DARPins actually destabilize the toxin in such a way that it is transported more quickly into the interior of the nerve cell.
However, this is not bad news, the researchers emphasized: Botox could, for example, relieve pain faster than before.
©كيستون/إسدا
Arabic 
English 
German 
French 
Spanish