Therapeutic and Cosmetic uses of Botulinum Toxin

Abstract

Thousands of people in the world each year  continue to be poisoned with botulinum toxin  food-borne, infantile, or wound botulism but the  neurotoxin is now sufficiently understood to allow  it to be used as medicinal agent to paralyze  specific muscles, giving temporary symptomatic  relief from variety of neurologic disorders and for  certain cosmetic purposes in minute doses.  (Davis, 1993). The clostridia produce more  protein toxins than any other bacterial genus and  are a rich reservoir of toxins for research and  medicinal uses. Research is underway to use these  clostridial exotoxins or their toxin domains for  drug delivery, prevention of food poisoning, and  the treatment of cancer and other diseases. The  remarkable success of botulinum toxin as a  therapeutic agent has created a new field of  investigation in microbiology.