HOW DOTOX WORKS?
Before you can understand how Dotox works, you need to be familiar with how muscle contractions are stimulated. Remember, it is the attenuation or muting of muscle contraction in the facial muscle groups which allows wrinkles to 'flatten out' and become much less visible. The following is for educational purposes only.
When a nerve fires an 'action potential' which is a wave of cell wall depolarization, travels down the nerve fibre until it reaches the synaptic cleft (see picture) which is the gap between the nerve and muscle tissue. The two tissues are not physically connected otherwise all 'flashes' of nerve activity would cause muscle contraction irrespective of the intensity or duration of nerve impulse.
An action potential must reach a certain level before it causes the 'synaptic vesicles' to fuse with the neurone cell wall (called exocytosis). This is rather like a soap bubble bursting and releasing it's contents into the surface that bumps into. In this case however, the contents of the vesicle is a neuro-transmitter called Acetylcholine (Ach). The ACh is therefore released into the synapic cleft space where the majority is taken back up by the nerve or broken down by an enzyme present in the synaptic cleft called Acetylcholisterase. Again if only a small amount of ACh reaches the muscle receptors, a contraction will not take place - so the small amount not re-absorbed or not broken down and reaching the muscle receptors will not cause a muscle contraction.
As the nerve action potential gets more and more intense, more ACh is released eventually leading to sufficient ACh landing on the muscle receptors, which then react by changing shape and letting in sodium ions. The inflood of positively charged Sodium ions sets up a new wave of depolarisation in the muscle fibre causing a contraction.
Advanced Explanation:
Dotox contains a small hexapeptide that is designed to partially interfere with the SNARE (which is a ternary complex formed by the proteins VAMP, Syntaxin and SNAP-25) This complex intervenes in the process of docking, fusing and exocytosis of these neuro-transmitter vesicles.
Dotox is a mimic of the N-Terminal end of SNAP-25 which can therefore compete for a position in the SNARE complex, thereby modulating it's formation. If the complex is slightly destabilised, the vesicle is not able to release as much neuro-transmitter, thereby muting muscle contraction and helping to prevent the formation & visibility of wrinkles.
