Bioactivity of abobotulinum toxin is preserved till 2 weeks upon storage at room temperature: Half body comparative study on rabbit model.

Background: Breakages of the cold chain of botulinum neurotoxin A (BONT-A) preparations is not a rare event and occurs due to several unexpected and unintentional reasons during daily practice and intervention schedules could not be proposed due to the lack of data.

Objective: To investigate the heat stability of abobotulinum toxin A (AboBONT-A) in terms of efficacy and duration of action upon storage at room temperature (25°C) for 2, 4, and 8 weeks.

Methods And Materials: Twenty rabbits were divided into four groups and received an injection of ideally stored AboBONT-A (Group 1) and stored AboBONT-A for 2 (Group 2), 4 (Group 3), and 8 weeks (Group 4) at room temperature into the anterior auricular muscle. All rabbits were followed up and photographed by weekly for 16 weeks. Grade of paralysis was evaluated by using a modified visual scoring system.

Results: No significant alteration was found in initial potency of stored AboBONT-A at room temperature for up to 4 weeks. Storage at room temperature for 2 weeks did not affect the duration of action (group 2; P = .69), and faster recovery was observed in group 3 and group 4.

Conclusion: The bioactivity of AboBONT-A is not altered till 2 weeks upon storage at room temperature.