New insights about Botulinum toxin A
Botulinum toxin A creates muscle weakness and atrophy following long term use
2010-12-04
(Press-News.org) A new study by researchers at the Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, is raising questions about the therapeutic use of botulinum toxin A.
The study found that animals injected with Clostridium Botulinum type A neurotoxin complex (BOTOX, Allergan, Inc., Toronto, Ontario, Canada) experienced muscle weakness in muscles throughout the body, even though they were far removed from the injection site. The study also found that repeated injection induced muscle atrophy and loss of contractile tissue in the limb that was not injected with the Toxin.
"We were surprised by the degree of muscle loss and atrophy in the limb that was not injected with the Botulinum toxin," says Rafael Fortuna the lead author of the paper will soon be published in The Journal of Biomechanics, "I think it's fair to say that the paper raises some important questions about the long-term therapeutic use of Botox, especially with children and adolescents."
The study used dosages that approximated therapeutic doses used to treat conditions like cerebral palsy where muscle contraction can't be controlled resulting in muscle dystonia and spasticity. The study follows previous research in Dr. Walter Herzog's lab, which found that Botulinum toxin A, easily crosses the muscle membrane barrier, resulting in muscles weakness in the surrounding (non-injected) muscles.
This study shows, for the first time, that over time Botulinum toxin A use also results in muscle weakness, atrophy and loss of contractile tissue in non-injected muscles far-removed from the injection site."It may be that the benefits of using Botox for these kinds of therapeutic, medical uses, outweighs these potential long-term consequences," says Dr. Herzog, "however I think this study raises some important issues that need to be followed to ensure the best possible outcomes for patients, in the long term."
Botulinum Toxin A is also used as a cosmetic treatment, where the drug paralyzes small muscles in the face to reduce the appearance of wrinkles.
Herzog notes that while this study was looking at larger doses, the results should be valid for any application of the drug.
INFORMATION: END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2010-12-04
A fascinating study published in the BMJ shows that although the French drink more than the Northern Irish each week, as they drink daily, rather than more on less occasions, the French suffered from considerably less coronary heart disease than the Northern Irish. Ruidavets and colleagues compared groups of middle aged men in France and Northern Ireland, who have very different drinking cultures and rates of heart disease.The authors found that men who "binge" drink (drink =50 g of alcohol once a week) had nearly twice the risk of myocardial infarction or death from coronary ...
2010-12-04
For more than a decade, Dr. Joseph Ortiz, associate professor of geology at Kent State University and part of an international team of National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded researchers, has been studying long-term climate variability associated with El Niño. The researchers' goal is to help climatologists better understand this global climate phenomenon that happens every two to eight years, impacting much of the world.
El Niño is the periodic warming of central and eastern tropical Pacific waters. The last El Niño occurred in 2009, Ortiz said, and its impact was ...
2010-12-04
From hotel-style room service to massage therapy to magnificent views, hospitals are increasingly touting their luxury services in a bid to gain market share, especially those in competitive urban markets. An important new article, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, raises crucial questions about the role of amenities in hospital care, explaining that how we decide to value the patient experience can have a significant effect on health care costs.
"Though amenities have long been relevant to hospital competition, they seem to have increased in importance ...
2010-12-04
Experiences with violence cause teens growing up in dangerous neighborhoods to adopt a range of coping strategies, with notable impact whether the violence takes place at home, among friends or during police incidents, a University of Chicago study shows.
The responses to violence include seeking out non-violent friends, avoiding trouble, becoming resigned to the situation, striving to do well in school, or for some, retaliating physically, the authors said.
"Exposure to community violence is pervasive among youth in many urban neighborhoods. We found in one study that ...
2010-12-04
Perhaps you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, but scientists are reporting progress in pulling off the same trick with the notoriously bland flavor of pork. They are reporting new insights into the biochemical differences in the meat of an Italian swine renowned for its good flavor since the ancient Roman Empire and the modern "Large White" or Yorkshire hog, whose roots date back barely 125 years. Their study appears in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research.
Lello Zolla and colleagues note that modern lean pork's reputation as bland and tasteless — "the other white ...
2010-12-04
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- There has been controversy about whether life originated in a hot or cold environment, and about whether enough time has elapsed for life to have evolved to its present complexity.
But new research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill investigating the effect of temperature on extremely slow chemical reactions suggests that the time required for evolution on a warm earth is shorter than critics might expect.
The findings are published in the Dec. 1, 2010, online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Enzymes, ...
2010-12-04
A team of physicists from the University of Toronto and Rutgers University have mimicked the explosion of a supernova in miniature.
A supernova is an exploding star. In a certain type of supernova, the detonation starts with a flame ball buried deep inside a white dwarf. The flame ball is much lighter than its surroundings, so it rises rapidly making a plume topped with an accelerating smoke ring.
"We created a smaller version of this process by triggering a special chemical reaction in a closed container that generates similar plumes and vortex rings," says Stephen ...
2010-12-04
Scientists are announcing development and successful testing of the first "perfumery radar (PR)." It's not a new electronic gadget for homing in on the source of that Eau de Givenchy or Jungle Tiger in a crowded room. Rather, PR is a long-awaited new tool for bringing scientific order to the often arbitrary process of classifying the hundreds of odors that make-up perfumes. A report on the advance appears in ACS' journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.
Alírio Rodrigues and colleagues note that the typical perfume has 50-100 fragrant ingredients. Experts who ...
2010-12-04
Scientists are proposing an international effort, on the scale of the Human Genome Project (HGP), to identify all the proteins present in cancer cells. HGP was the international scientific research project that identified and mapped all the genes in humans. Within a decade, they believe, results of the new effort could provide cancer patients with more effective treatments customized to their own biology. The perspective appears in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research.
Cristobal Belda-Iniesta and colleagues point out that medicine already is moving toward individual treatments ...
2010-12-04
People in a jetliner act and feel one way when crammed together like sardines in a can. But they have quite a different mindset when the middle seat is empty and they have more personal space. Scientists are pursuing a remarkable parallel that exists among the proteins involved in health and disease inside living cells. The cover story in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS' weekly newsmagazine, focuses on how the study of proteins crowded together inside cells is opening new doors to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease.
C&EN Senior ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] New insights about Botulinum toxin A
Botulinum toxin A creates muscle weakness and atrophy following long term use
