{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,9]],"date-time":"2026-05-09T21:10:51Z","timestamp":1778361051309,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":59,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2015,12,8]],"date-time":"2015-12-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1449532800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100007479","name":"Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100007479","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"University of Padova"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Toxins"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) and some animal neurotoxins (\u03b2-Bungarotoxin, \u03b2-Btx, from elapid snakes and \u03b1-Latrotoxin, \u03b1-Ltx, from black widow spiders) are pre-synaptic neurotoxins that paralyse motor axon terminals with similar clinical outcomes in patients. However, their mechanism of action is different, leading to a largely-different duration of neuromuscular junction (NMJ) blockade. BoNTs induce a long-lasting paralysis without nerve terminal degeneration acting via proteolytic cleavage of SNARE proteins, whereas animal neurotoxins cause an acute and complete degeneration of motor axon terminals, followed by a rapid recovery. In this study, the injection of animal neurotoxins in mice muscles previously paralyzed by BoNT\/A or \/B accelerates the recovery of neurotransmission, as assessed by electrophysiology and morphological analysis. This result provides a proof of principle that, by causing the complete degeneration, reabsorption, and regeneration of a paralysed nerve terminal, one could favour the recovery of function of a biochemically- or genetically-altered motor axon terminal. These observations might be relevant to dying-back neuropathies, where pathological changes first occur at the neuromuscular junction and then progress proximally toward the cell body.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/toxins7124887","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2015,12,9]],"date-time":"2015-12-09T15:21:41Z","timestamp":1449674501000},"page":"5322-5336","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":27,"title":["Snake and Spider Toxins Induce a Rapid Recovery of Function of Botulinum Neurotoxin Paralysed Neuromuscular Junction"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Elisa","family":"Duregotti","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padua, Via U. Bassi 58\/B, 35131 Padova, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9350-1047","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giulia","family":"Zanetti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padua, Via U. Bassi 58\/B, 35131 Padova, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Michele","family":"Scorzeto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padua, Via U. Bassi 58\/B, 35131 Padova, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Aram","family":"Megighian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padua, Via U. Bassi 58\/B, 35131 Padova, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7361-5688","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cesare","family":"Montecucco","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padua, Via U. Bassi 58\/B, 35131 Padova, Italy"},{"name":"Institute for Neuroscience, National Research Council, Via U. Bassi 58\/B, 35131 Padova, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4127-254X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marco","family":"Pirazzini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padua, Via U. Bassi 58\/B, 35131 Padova, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Michela","family":"Rigoni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padua, Via U. 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