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In nature, Botulinum toxin is produced by a bacteria called Clostridium Botulinum. This bacteria is found widely in nature but is commonly found in rotten fish. It produces a very powerful toxin - Botulinum toxin. This is known as a neurotoxin as it attacks nerves and permanently destroys their function.
If you were to eat a rotten fish that had a lot of Clostridium Botulinum in it, the Botulinum toxin that they released would circulate through your body and would paralyse you. This of course would be lethal as it would prevent you from breathing. It is because of these effects when taken in a massive dose, that it is called a toxin.
Luckily now, using genetic engineering techniques, scientists can produce very pure Botulinum toxin in very precise but minute quantities. This allows qualified practitioners to control the effect it has and to keep it localised to a very small area that they wish to affect.
In nature there are two different sorts of Botulinum toxin, Botulinum toxin A and Botulinum toxin B. In the clinical use of Botulinum toxin, we tend to only use Botulinum toxin A and all of the products listed on the first page of this website, are Botulinum toxin A. There is a use for Botulinum toxin B that can be used in people who have become immune to Botulinum toxin A. There will be more about this later.
The process of genetic engineering is not as complicated as it sounds. In principle, the gene (or DNA) for the toxin is taken out of the Clostridium Botulinum bacteria and inserted into a harmless bacteria (usually E.Coli) which then produces precise amounts of the toxin. This can be gathered, purified and sold in precise amounts. By doing this, clinicians using Botulinum toxin know that they have a pure substance with a predictable action and an exact dose to get a predictable response.
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