system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How can a absurdly small amount of deadly poison, like Botulinum, kill a human?

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.
gpt
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.