How botox enters our cells

An important step that could help to utilise Botox even more effectively in the future, for example in pain therapy

13-Feb-2025 - Researchers at the Center for Life Sciences at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have for the first time identified structural changes in the botulinum neurotoxin, botox for short, that are believed to be crucial for its uptake into nerve cells. This could mean that the paralysing effect of this ...

New drugs from toxic birds

Investigation of the symbiosis between bacteria and birds leads to the discovery of new natural products with antimicrobial properties

10-Oct-2024 - Bacteria are a valuable source for the discovery of natural products that can be used for the development of new drugs. A HIPS research team has now identified two new classes of active substances with antimicrobial properties from bacteria that live in symbiosis with a toxic bird. This strategy ...

Scientists decode black widow spider venom

Cryo-EM and MD simulations unveil the mechanism of the potent neurotoxin α-latrotoxin in forming calcium-permeable membrane pores

10-Oct-2024 - The black widow spider is one of the most feared spider species. Its venom is a cocktail of seven different toxins that attack the nervous system. These so-called latrotoxins specifically paralyse insects and crustaceans, but one of them, the α-latrotoxin, targets vertebrates and is also ...

Enzymes in spider venom have bioeconomic potential

Surprising discovery: chemical diversity in spider venoms dramatically underestimated until now

09-Oct-2024 - As venomous animals, spiders use their chemical arsenal for prey capture or defence. Small neurotoxins target the central nervous system of their victims. While the toxins are intensively investigated, scientists at the LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (TBG) in Hesse, Germany, ...

Venomous crustacean from Mayan underwater caves provides new drug candidates

08-Oct-2024 - Zootoxins affect a wide range of physiological processes and are therefore of great interest for drug research. An international study led by Björn von Reumont of Goethe University Frankfurt has identified novel toxins from the cave-dwelling underwater crustacean Xibalbanus tulumensis that ...

Pathoblockers, a future alternative to antibiotics?

Researchers “defanging” bacteria, rendering them harmless

21-May-2024 - In most cases, antibiotics are a reliable form of protection against bacterial infections. They have saved billions of human lives since their introduction. This protection, however, is threatened by bacteria’s resistance to classical antibiotics and by their aggressive pathogenicity. Currently, ...

Identify, engage, assassinate: How seahorse-like toxins kill insects

Researchers reveal the first-ever detailed structure of the bacterial toxin Mcf1: Useful for engineering novel biopesticides

02-Feb-2024 - Insect-killing bacteria typically release toxins to slay their hosts. The bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens, for example, pumps insect larvae full of the lethal ‘Makes caterpillars floppy 1’ (Mcf1) toxin, leading them to first become droopy and then dead. However, it has so far been a mystery ...

Single-celled kamikazes spearhead bacterial infection

How a few soldier cells confer virulence to an entire bacterial population by sacrificing themselves

23-Jan-2024 - You suddenly feel sick - pathogenic bacteria have managed to colonize and spread in your body! The weapons they use for their invasion are harmful toxins that target the host’s defense mechanisms and vital cell functions. Before these deadly toxins can attack host cells, bacteria must first ...

X-ray laser uncovers the structure of a natural anti-mosquito insecticide

Bacterial protein found to work against more species of mosquito as previously thought

01-Dec-2023 - An international research team has analysed a naturally produced toxin against insects with atomic precision using the most powerful X-ray laser in the world. The data taken at the European XFEL help with figuring out the mode of action of the insecticide, which is produced by a bacterium. This ...

Evolutionary history of three-finger snake toxins decoded

Hope for treatments for type 2 diabetes and hypertension

11-Oct-2023 - Snakebites cause around 100,000 deaths worldwide every year. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have investigated how the toxin emerged between 50 and 120 million years ago through the modification of a gene that also occurs in mammals and other reptiles. The results could ...