Toxins are hazardous biochemical compounds derived from bacteria, fungi, or plants. Some have mechanisms of action and physical properties that make them amenable for use as potential warfare agents. Currently, some toxins are classified as potential biological weapons, although they have several differences from classic living bio-terror pathogens and some similarities to manmade chemical warf...

Since the approval of botulinum toxin, dermal fillers, and lasers for cosmetic use, minimally invasive aesthetic procedures have rapidly become the treatments of choice for age-related facial changes. In the past 10 years, aesthetic procedures have increased nearly five-fold. Of the 10.2 million aesthetic treatments performed in 2008, 83 percent were minimally invasive procedures. Botulinum tox...

Chemical and pharmacological studies of a toxin present in Japanese species of a marine annelid, Lumbriconereis heteropoda Marenz, were motivated mainly by the clinic al complaints of headache, nausea and respiratory disorder in the fishers using this annelid as a fishing bait. Moreover, it has widely been observed that the feeding of the dead body of this annelid results in the toxic death of ...

Cholera toxin (CT) follows a glycolipid-dependent entry pathway from the plasma membrane through the trans-Golgi network (TGN) to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) where it is retro-translocated into the cytosol to induce toxicity. Whether access to the Golgi apparatus is necessary for transport to the ER is not known. Exo2 is a small chemical that rapidly blocks anterograde traffic from the ER to...

We studied the dose-response relationship between gamma radiation and batrachotoxin-stimulated sodium influx in neuroblastoma cells in tissue culture. We also tested the hypothesis that changes in sodium channel conformation may alter the radiosensitivity of the channel. We found that gamma radiation inhibited toxin-stimulated 22Na uptake at doses beyond a threshold of 200-300 Gy. No effects we...

Communities are concerned with the role of durable pesticides and their carry over effect in food chains. Accordingly, the recognition and measurement of chemical compounds in food, environment and living bodies is necessary. In this study, which dated from October 2010 to March 2011, deltamethrin toxin residues in sugar beets were investigated in the cities of Isfahan province including: Isfah...

Cell-based impedance biosensing is an emerging technology that can be used to non-invasively and instantaneously detect and analyze cell responses to chemical and biological agents. This article highlights the fabrication and measurement technologies of cell impedance sensors, and their application in toxin detection and anti-cancer drug screening. We start with an introduction that describes t...

Neuro-2a neuroblastoma cells can be stimulated to extend neurites with a number of agents, one of which, neuraminidase, induces terminal differentiation by a mechanism involving enhanced Ca2+ influx. Permeabilization of such differentiated cells with saponin and treatment with cholera toxin B subunit linked to horseradish peroxidase revealed intense staining of the nuclear membrane, indicating ...

As supplements to classical chemical insecticides, two approaches to develop recombinant baculovirus insecticides are described. In one approach an insect-specific toxin is expressed leading to a dramatic reduction in time to death. In the second approach an insect juvenile hormone esterase is expressed which leads to a reduction in feeding. Modifications of the wildtype esterase led to viruses...