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Fumonisin B 1 (FB 1 ), a mycotoxin from Fusarium verticillioides, disrupts sphingolipid metabolism by inhibiting ceramide synthase leading to modulation of cytokines including tumor necrosis factor (TNF) α. Current study investigated the effect of interrupting TNFα signaling, known to be involved in FB 1 hepatotoxicity. Male C57BL/6N mice were injected intravenously once with...
Bufotenin (5-hydroxy-N,N-dimetyltryptamine) is a tryptamine alkaloid widely spread among anuran families as a component of their chemical defense system, acting as a potent hallucinogenic factor, showing similar activity to LSD upon interaction with the 5HT 2 human receptor. This work demonstrates the presence of bufotenin in the skin secretion of three arboreal amphibian species of the Osteocephalus...
From the venom of the Mexican scorpion Centruroides elegans Thorell five peptides were isolated to homogeneity by chromatographic procedures and their full amino acid sequence was determined by automatic Edman degradation. They all belong to the Noxiustoxin subfamily of scorpion toxins and were given the systematic names α-KTx 2.8 to 2.12, with trivial names Ce1 to Ce5, respectively. They have 39...
The botulinum neurotoxin endopeptidases appear to recognise their intracellular protein substrates via two distinct sites: the cleavage site sequence and a ‘recognition site’ motif. In the present study phage display has been employed to generate a library of vesicle-associated membrane protein (VAMP2) variants in which the toxin recognition motif (part of the SNARE motif ELDDRADA) has been modified...
Cobra cardiotoxins (CTXs) are basic polypeptides with diverse pharmacological functions that are cytotoxic to many different cell types through both necrotic and apoptotic cell death pathways. In this comparative study of the action of CTX A3 from the Taiwan cobra (Naja atra) on fetal rat cardiomyocytes and cortical neurons, it was shown that CTX A3 induced different patterns of elevation of intracellular...
To investigate the relationship between the toxicity of puffer fish and the distribution of tetrodotoxin-producing bacteria in puffer fish Fugu rubripes collected from the Bohai Sea of China, bacteria were isolated from each organ (ovaries, livers, intestines and gallbladders) and screened for tetrodotoxin (TTX) production. 20 out of 36 isolated strains were found to produce TTX in vitro. In the organs...
Two forms of complement-depleting cobra venom factor (CVFm1 and CVFm2), possessing molecular masses of 142.6kDa (CVFm1) and 143.1kDa (CVFm2), according to MALDI mass-spectrometry, were isolated from the Naja melanoleuca cobra venom. As shown by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of SDS, both forms similarly to factor from the Naja kaouthia cobra venom (CVFk) consist of three polypeptide...
Microcystins are strong toxins and efficient inhibitors of eukaryotic protein phosphatases. To determine structure related properties of six different microcystin congeners, we applied standardized inhibition assays for the protein phosphatases 1 and 2A, and an acute toxicity assay with Thamnocephalus platyurus. Protein phosphatase inhibition and acute toxicity did not correlate with each other. While...
Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) has been a significant and increasing public health problem in Hong Kong since 1980s. With growing demand for imported live coral fishes, the number of people who suffered from this disease has also been increasing. An outbreak of CFP in 2004 was the second most prominent in record as compared with the most significant one that occurred in 1998. In 2004, out of a total...
Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning (DSP) results from the consumption of shellfish contaminated with okadaic acid (OA) or one of the dinophysistoxins (DTX). It has been reported that this toxin induces apoptosis in several cell models, but the molecular events involved in this process have not been clarified. In this report we studied intracellular signals induced by OA in Caco-2 cells: mitochondrial...
A hemorrhagic metalloproteinase has been isolated from Bothrops alternatus venom from specimens that inhabit the north-east region of Argentina. The present study aimed at evaluating the proteolytic, hemorrhagic, edematogenic and myotoxic activities of the purified metalloproteinase, in order to consider its participation on the phatophysiology of the intoxication by Bothrops alternatus venom. The...
In order to better understand the function of fibrinolytic enzyme lebetase isoforms and the synthesis of disintegrins we have isolated a cDNA encoding the most basic isoform (Le-4) from the cDNA library prepared from the poly(A) + RNA of the venomous gland of an individual Vipera lebetina snake. The truncated 5′-sequence of 1112 basepairs encodes the mature protein with 203 amino acid residues...
Many toxins from viperid venoms have been characterised as powerful activators of platelets. Here, the venom from the East African Lowland viper, Proatheris superciliaris, was investigated for its effect on platelets and the coagulation system. Whole P. superciliaris venom stimulated platelet shape change and aggregation; however, the stimulation of platelet activation was unaffected by the structurally...
Phytoplanktivorous bighead carp were injected i.p. with extracted microcystins (mainly MC-RR and -LR) at two doses, 200 and 500MC-LReq.μgkg −1 bw, and the changes in extractable MCs in liver and in the ultrastructure of hepatocytes were studied at 1, 3, 12, 24 and 48h after injection. Quantitative and qualitative determinations of MCs in the liver were conducted by HPLC and LC-MS, respectively...
Microcystins are cyclic heptapeptide hepatoxins produced by cyanobacteria. It has been shown that microcystins have adverse effects on animals and on plants as well. Previous researches also indicated that microcystins were capable of inducing oxidative damage in animals both in vivo and in vitro. In this study, tobacco BY-2 suspension cell line was applied to examine the effects of microcystin-RR...
In 2002 several hundred people were taken ill after eating self-harvested brown crabs (Cancer pagurus) in the southern part of Norway. The symptoms were similar to diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) although with a somewhat delayed onset. This happened at the same time as an unusual early bloom of Dinophysis acuta had lead to high amounts of DSP toxins in blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) in the same...
In this study we investigated the presence of toxin-producing cyanobacterial contaminants in food supplements manufactured from blooms of the non-toxic freshwater cyanobacterium Aphanizomenon flos-aquae. Previous reports investigating the contamination of health food supplements with toxin-producing cyanobacteria have used chemical and or biochemical methods such as HPLC, ELISA and protein phosphatase...
Purple clams (Hiatula diphos Linnaeus) accumulate paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins produced by a toxic strain of the dinoflagellate Alexandrium minutum Halim in a laboratory study. The maximal toxicity of PSP toxins attained 31.3MU/g after 20 days exposure. The toxin profile of H. diphos was similar to that reported for A. minutum at the end of the exposure period; and GTX1 was dominant...
The in vitro effects of myotoxin III (MT-III), an Asp-49 catalytically-active phospholipase A 2 , and myotoxin II (MT-II), a catalytically-inactive Lys-49 variant, isolated from Bothrops asper snake venom, on phagocytosis and production of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) by thioglycollate-elicited macrophages were investigated. MT-II and MT-III were cytotoxic to mouse peritoneal...
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