Botulinum neurotoxin type A heavy chain intervenes in expression of general proteins in spinal cord after unilateral spinal cord injury in rats

AIM: To observe the effect of botulinum neurotoxin type A heavy chain (BoNT/A HC) on the pattern of spinal protein expression by intrathecal injection after spinal cord injury in rats, and to explore the role of BoNT/A HC intervention in spinal protein expression and some of its mechanisms in nerve regeneration after injury. METHODS: The model of unilateral lumbar spinal cord injury was established. The effects of BoNT/A HC intervention at different doses (2 μg, 4 μg, 6 μg and 8 μg) on the general pattern of protein expression in the spinal cord tissues at the injury site and the cranial part adjacent to the injury site was measured and evaluated by SDS-PAGE and Coomassie brilliant blue staining first, and then by two-dimensional SDS-PAGE. RESULTS: The histological structure of the ipsilateral side of lumbar spinal cord showed obvious destruction and degradation, mainly affecting both gray and white matter of the left side of the cord. The result of SDS-PAGE with Coomassie brilliant blue staining from injured spinal cord tissue displayed that the expression of some proteins after one-time BoNT/A HC treatment appeared obviously different from that without BoNT/A HC treatment. Moreover, the pattern of the protein expression affected by BoNT/A HC was similar to that of the normal spinal cord. The more detail information from two-dimensional SDS-PAGE indicated that more than 10 proteins with different molecular weight and isoelectronic points were differentially expressed at day 2 and day 20 after local injection of 6 μg BoNT/A HC. This altered expression actually appeared a tendency toward the pattern shown in normal group. CONCLUSION: The immediate application of BoNT/A HC at the injury site after unilateral lumbar spinal cord injury is able to affect the pattern of local protein expression. The altered protein expression by injury could be reversed back to normal or approximately normal by local BoNT/A HC administration.