Botox helps explain possible causes of nerve diseases

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Botox helps explain possible causes of nerve diseases

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=13243

Botox, used by Hollywood stars to smooth out facial wrinkles, is

playing an important role in UQ research to understand how nerve

cells communicate with each other. The research is exploring basic

nerve cell function, minute changes which underlie memory and

learning, and possible causes of nerve diseases.

Dr Frederic Meunier, a lecturer at University of Queensland's (UQ)

School of Biomedical Sciences, is studying basic physiological

processes at the molecular level.

Dr Meunier is one of seven UQ finalists in the 2005 UQ Foundation

Research Excellence Awards to be announced on September 22 as a

highlight of UQ Research Week 2005.

As one research strategy, he is taking advantage of the exquisite

selectivity of powerful nerve toxins such as botox or glycerotoxin to

selectively dissect basic nerve cell (neuronal) processes in

Australian Research Council funded research.

" Botox is the most potent neurotoxin currently known, " Dr Meunier

said.

" It derives from the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which causes

botulism (food poisoning).

" However, botox is increasingly used in human therapy to treat such

conditions as strabismus (cross-eyes), voice, head and limb tremor,

spasticity, stuttering, involuntary movements such as tics, and for

painful rigidity.

" I have been using different types of toxins to explore the interplay

of proteins and lipids (fats) when nerve cells communicate via the

release of neurotransmitters in a process called vesicular

exocytosis. "

Neurotransmitters transmit nerve impulses across chemical synapses,

which are regions where one nerve cell makes functional contact with

each other.

Dr Meunier and his colleagues have discovered that botox-intoxicated

nerve cells do not die. They start to emit little sprouts which

ultimately allow recovery of the nerve cell.

His current project aims to understand the role played by an

intriguing family of phosphate-containing fats, called

phosphoinositides in the build up to molecular events leading to

exocytosis.

In Australian Research Council funded research, Dr Meunier has

recently discovered an unexpected role for a member of the

phosphoinositide family in priming neurotransmitter-containing

vesicles -- a crucial event in the build up of molecular events

leading to the release of the neurotransmitter outside the nerve

cell.

The study has been recently published in a prestigious international

journal Molecular Biology of the Cell.

" This has given us a novel angle from which to approach this process

and we are using the same strategy to examine the role played by

PolyUnsaturated Fatty Acid in molecular mechanism of neuronal

communication in NH & MRC funded research., " he said.

" There is no doubt that understanding this process will lead to novel

research to tackle neuronal diseases such as Parkinson's and

Alzheimer's disease.

" It could also be important for future treatment of mental conditions

such as depression, which is becoming a national problem due to

ageing and stress of the Australian population.

" Furthermore this work will be important for reinforcing Australia's

role at the forefront of neurobiology and signalling research. "

Dr Meunier, whose PhD thesis at Paris University concentrated on

nerve cell communication, furthered his interests in the field during

postdoctoral studies at Imperial College, London on synaptic

research, and on phosphate-containing lipids in cancer research at

the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in

Cambridge, an institute which has produced more than 13 Nobel Prize

winners.

He joined UQ two years ago after a chance meeting with Professor

of UQ's School of Biomedical Sciences at an international

conference.

http://www.researchaustralia.com.au/