Synonyms in a broader sense
English: botulin toxin, botox
- Botulinum toxin
- Botulism toxin
- Botulin
- Botulinus toxin
- BTX
Botulinum toxin (Botox®) is the collective term for seven very similar nerve toxins (neurotoxic proteins), of which botulinum toxin type A is the most common and most important. All of these proteins are excreted by different strains of bacteria, especially Clostridium botulinum, which is found practically everywhere in the earth, but also by some other species. The toxic effect of Botox® is due to the fact that the signal transmission of nerve cells is inhibited.
In the past, it was feared mainly by food poisoning associated with it, but nowadays it is known mainly for its use in medical and cosmetic fields. Botox® in the narrower sense is the trade name of the drug from the pharmaceutical company Allergan, which contains the active ingredient botulinum toxin type A. In 1817, the German doctor and poet Justinus Kerner described for the first time food poisoning, which had occurred particularly frequently in connection with sausage or canned sausage.
According to the Latin word for sausage (“botulus”), this poisoning was called botulism, the poison consequently as Botox® and the bacterium finally isolated for the first time at the end of the 19th century as Clostridium botulinum. Many years later it was discovered that the muscle paralysing effect of the poison could be used in medicine. In 1980, Botox® was used for the first time by the ophthalmologist A. Scott as a drug for the treatment of people with strabismus and eyelid spasm.
Even then Scott recognized the wrinkle-smoothing effect of the poison. In 1992 the dermatologist A. Carruthers from Canada developed the first treatment of the so-called frown line (glabellar fold = the wrinkle which is caused by the contraction of the eyebrows between the eyes). Since then, botulinum toxin A has been used to smooth wrinkles, but the official approval of preparations with this active ingredient for this indication did not follow until 2002.
Mode of operation
Each fibre of the musculature is connected to the end of a nerve fibre. In order for the muscle to contract, the nerve must release a messenger substance called acetylcholine when it is excited. This transmission of excitation is disturbed by botulinum toxin (Botox®), whereby, depending on the dosage, the muscle contraction is either weakened or no longer takes place.
When the toxin botulinum toxin (Botox®) enters the body, it is absorbed by the nerve endings. There it splits various proteins, which thereby lose their functions. Since this is normally responsible for the release of acetylcholine, it is not released under the influence of the toxin. Consequently, it is no longer possible to control the muscle fibre. Other functions of the nerve, such as feeling, are not affected by the toxin.
