Toxins, Volume 10, Issue 4

Botulinum toxins (BoNTs) are produced by several anaerobic species of the genus Clostridium and, although they were originally considered lethal toxins, today they find their usefulness in the treatment of a wide range of pathologies in various medic...

Many issues and complications in treating snakebite are a result of poor human social, economic and clinical intervention and management. As such, there is scope for significant improvements for reducing incidence and increasing patient outcomes. Sna...

Runner’s dystonia (RD) is a task-specific focal dystonia of the lower limbs that occurs when running. In this retrospective case series, we present surface electromyography (EMG) and joint kinematic data from thirteen patients with RD who under...

The Solid Phase Adsorption Toxin Tracking (SPATT) technology, first introduced in 2004, uses porous synthetic resins capable of passively adsorbing toxins produced by harmful microalgae or cyanobacteria and dissolved in the water. This method allows...

Aspergillus nidulans has one gene for alternative oxidase (EC 1.10.3.11). To investigate the relationship between this mitochondrial terminal oxidase and the formation of the mycotoxin sterigmatocystin, the encoding aodA gene was both deleted and ove...

Experiencing pain is the greatest contributor to a reduced quality of life in children with cerebral palsy (CP). The presence of pain is quite common (~60%) and increases with age. This leads to missed school days, less participation, and reduced amb...

Gastric cancer is a major health burden and is the fifth most common malignancy and the third most common cause of death from cancer worldwide. Development of gastric cancer involves several aspects, including host genetics, environmental factors, an...

A lumbar sympathetic ganglion block (LSB) is a therapeutic method for complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) affecting the lower limbs. Recently, LSB with botulinum toxin type A and B was introduced as a novel method to achieve longer duration of anal...

A visual immunoaffinity test column (IATC) assay was developed to detect fumonisins in cereal samples for spot tests without the need for special instruments. The developed IATC assay had equivalent recognition capability for fumonisin B₁ (FB₁), fumo...

Ribosome inactivating proteins (RIPs) form a vast family of hundreds of toxins from plants, fungi, algae, and bacteria. RIP activities have also been detected in animal tissues. They exert an N-glycosydase catalytic activity that is targeted to a sin...

Scorpion venom is a rich source of biologically active components and various peptides with high-potential therapeutic use that have been characterized for their antimicrobial and antiproliferative activities. Stigmurin is a peptide identified from t...

Biofilms complicate treatment of Staphylococcus aureus (SA) wound infections. Previously, we determined alpha-toxin (AT)-promoted SA biofilm formation on mucosal tissue. Therefore, we evaluated SA wound isolates for AT production and biofilm formatio...

In Brazil, envenomation by snakes of the genus Bothrops is clinically relevant, particularly for the species Bothrops jararaca and B. erythromelas. The most effective treatment for envenomation by snakes is the administration of antivenoms associated...

The emergence of super-toxigenic strains by recombination is a risk from an intensive use of intraspecific aflatoxin (AF) biocontrol agents (BCAs). Periodical alternation with interspecific-BCAs will be safer since they preclude recombination. We are...

Uremic retention solutes (URS) are associated with cardiovascular complications and poor survival in chronic kidney disease. The better understanding of the origin of a certain number of these toxins enabled the development of new strategies to reduc...

Insight into how environmental change determines the production and distribution of cyanobacterial toxins is necessary for risk assessment. Management guidelines currently focus on hepatotoxins (microcystins). Increasing attention is given to other c...

Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are a family of highly dangerous bacterial toxins, with seven major serotypes (BoNT/A-G). Members of BoNTs, BoNT/A1 and BoNT/B1, have been utilized to treat an increasing number of medical conditions. The clinical trials...

Drug-induced liver injury is one of the main causes of drug non-approval and drug withdrawal by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Bavachinin (BVC) is a natural product derived from the fruit of the traditional Chinese herb Fructus Psoraleae (FP...

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is one of the most prevalent mycotoxins, contaminating cereals and cereal-derived products. Its derivative deepoxy-deoxynivalenol (DOM-1) is produced by certain bacteria, which either occur naturally or are supplemented in feed a...

Cyclomodulins are bacterial toxins that interfere with the eukaryotic cell cycle. A new cyclomodulin called colibactin, which is synthetized by the pks genomic island, was discovered in 2006. Despite many efforts, colibactin has not yet been purified...

We examined the toxicokinetics of fumonisin B₁ (FB1) and its main metabolites after single dose application intravenously (iv) of 139 nmol FB1 or hydrolyzed FB1 (HFB1)/kg bodyweight (BW) in barrows (BW: 34.4 kg ± 2.7 kg), as well as the toxicokinetic...

The contamination of feed with mycotoxins results in reduced growth, feed refusal, immunosuppression, and health problems. Deoxynivalenol (DON) and zearalenone (ZEN) are among the most important mycotoxins. The aim of the study was to examine the eff...

Mycotoxins are major food contaminants affecting global food security, especially in low and middle-income countries. The European Union (EU) funded project, MycoKey, focuses on “Integrated and innovative key actions for mycotoxin management in...

Cyanobacteria synthesize a large variety of secondary metabolites including toxins. Microcystins (MCs) with hepato- and neurotoxic potential are well studied in bloom-forming planktonic species of temperate and tropical regions. Cyanobacterial biofil...

Lake Lesser Prespa and its adjacent pond, Vromolimni in Greece, is a shallow freshwater system and a highly protected area hosting an exceptional biodiversity. The occurrence of microcystins (MCs) producing cyanobacterial blooms in these waters durin...

Neuropathic pain represents a significant clinical problem because it is a chronic condition often refractory to available therapy. Therefore, there is still a strong need for new analgesics. Botulinum neurotoxin A (BoNT/A) is used to treat a variety...

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by highly pruritic, erythematous, and eczematous skin plaques. We previously reported that phospholipase A2 (PLA2) derived from bee venom alleviates AD-like skin lesions indu...

Toxic effects triggered by crotalic envenoming are mainly related to crotoxin (CTX), composed of a phospholipase A₂ (CB) and a subunit with no toxic activity (CA). Camelids produce immunoglobulins G devoid of light chains, in which the antigen recogn...

This review explores current evidence to demonstrate that botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) exert antipruritic effects. Both experimental and clinical conditions in which botulinum neurotoxins have been applied for pruritus relief will be presented and s...

Many neurological diseases (ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, multiple sclerosis, infant cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injury, and other cerebrovascular disorders) may cause muscle spasticity. Different therapeutic strategies h...

Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) is caused by a group of marine toxins with saxitoxin (STX) as the reference compound. Symptoms in humans after consumption of contaminated shellfish vary from slight neurological and gastrointestinal effects to fat...

Staphylococcal Enterotoxins (SEs) are superantigens (SAg) originally produced by S. aureus, but their presence in coagulase negative staphylococci (CNS) has long been suspected. This study aims to better characterize a novel C-like enterotoxin expres...

T-2 toxin is a secondary metabolite of some Fusarium species. It is well-known that this substance can harmfully impact living organisms. Among others, thanks to the ability of crossing the blood–brain barrier, T-2 toxin can affect the central nervou...

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a mycotoxin produced by several species of Aspergillus and Penicillium that contaminate food and feed raw materials. To reduce OTA contamination, we first tested in vitro, actinobacterial strains as potential biocontrol agents a...

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Cnidaria include the most venomous animals of the world. Among Cnidaria, Scyphozoa (true jellyfish) are ubiquitous, abundant, and often come into accidental contact with humans and, therefore, represent a threat for public health and safety. The veno...

Pruriceptive itch originates following activation of peripheral sensory nerve terminals when pruritogens come in contact with the skin. The ability of botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) to attenuate transmitter release from afferent terminals provides a r...

Phenotypic diversity generated through altered gene expression is a primary mechanism facilitating evolutionary response in natural systems. By linking the phenotype to genotype through transcriptomics, it is possible to determine what changes are oc...

At the interface between agriculture and nutrition, the aflatoxin contamination of food and feed touches on agriculture, health, and trade. For more than three decades now, the problem of aflatoxin has been researched in Africa. The interest of devel...

Cosmopolitan Gram-negative cyanobacteria may affect human and animal health by contaminating terrestrial, marine and freshwater environments with toxins, such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The cyanobacterial genus Scytonema (S) produces several toxins...

To explore AFB₁-induced damage of the small intestine, the changes in structure and expression of TLRs (Toll-like Receptors) in the small intestine of chickens were systematically investigated. Ninety healthy neonatal Cobb chickens were randomized in...