How can a absurdly small amount of deadly poison, like Botulinum, kill a human?

1.04K views

I can’t understand how a small grain, a speck of toxin can kill a grown adult?

If this has been asked before please redirect me to the post.

In: Biology

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The botulism toxin can do this because it’s an enzyme – it cleaves a critical neurotransmitter protein in half, then resets to do it again.

And again

And again

A single molecule can keep dicing up protein and disabling a neuron for hours before it finally degrades.

In that time, you’ve been unable to breathe because the signal pathway is all locked up.

Compare that to a poison molecule like carbon monoxide that disables a single protein and is then permanently expended.

You are viewing 1 out of 3 answers, click here to view all answers.