Botox is a brand name for a type of medicine made from a type of neurotoxin called botulinum toxin (type A) that is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. Although this is the same toxin responsible for botulism, a type of food poisoning that attacks nerves and causes difficulty breathing or paralysis, the injection of small doses of this toxic protein in certain areas of the body has aesthetic and therapeutic benefits.
Today, this botulinum toxin is commercially used in the medicine and cosmetic industry under different brands such as Botox, Dysport, Xeomin, Jeuveau, and Myobloc but many people refer to all of them as simply Botox because it is the first and best-known brand for this product.
Botulinum toxin
Botox is made from botulinum toxin type A. There are eight serotypes of botulinum toxin protein (A, B, Cα, Cβ, D, E, F, and G), of which serotype A has the most application in cosmetic medicine.
In 1953, a physiologist named Vernon Brooks found out that injecting small amounts of botulinum toxin type A can block the release of acetylcholine, causing temporary muscle relaxation.
Later in the 1960s, Alan Scot, an American ophthalmologist, suggested that the muscle-relaxing effects of Botox can help in the treatment of strabismus (crossed-eyes). It took him until 1978 to win the approval of the FDA to try the treatment on human volunteers.
In 1989, the FDA finally approved the injection of botulinum toxin type A for the treatment of both strabismus and blepharospasm (eye twitching), a condition involving the involuntary, spontaneous contraction of eyelid muscles, causing the person to blink their eyes involuntarily. With the success of the botulinum toxin in treating eye muscle disorders, the American pharmaceutical company Allergan started marketing the drug under the brand name Botox.
Having proven successful under clinical trials as a treatment for facial lines and wrinkles, Botox won the approval of the FDA in 2002 to be used to treat moderate to severe frown lines in adults, albeit under the brand name Botox Cosmetic to distinguish it from the one that can be used for therapeutic purposes.
Nowadays Botox is regarded as the best treatment for facial wrinkles. Although other pharmaceutical companies developed similar products under different names, including Dysport, Xeomin, Jeuveau, and Myobloc, many people still use the word Botox to refer to all of them.
