Combined treatment with antitoxin and 3,4-diaminopyridine improves survival outcomes after lethal botulinum neurotoxin challenge.

ABSTRACT: Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are the most potent toxins known, causing life-threatening flaccid paralysis by blocking acetylcholine release at neuromuscular junctions. Clinical botulism results in respiratory failure, requiring prolonged artificial ventilation for survival. The only specific therapy is antitoxin, which neutralizes circulating toxin but cannot affect toxin within neurons, resulting in a narrow therapeutic window. Due to its high potency and lack of treatment options, large-scale BoNT exposures present profound risks to human life. Thus, there is an urgent need for rapidly acting symptomatic therapies that can reverse respiratory paralysis and sustain survival until resolution of toxin effects. We previously identified the FDA-approved, voltage-gated potassium channel block

SUBMITTER: O'Brien SW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12305929 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature