2018 December - 61 articles
Venomous animals are found through a wide taxonomic range including cartilaginous fish such as the freshwater stingray Potamotrygon motoro occurring in South America, which can injure people and cause venom-related symptoms. Ensuring the efficacy of...
The study applied 1H NMR-based plasma metabolomics to identify candidate biomarkers of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) ingestion in dairy cows fed no sequestering agents and evaluate the effect of supplementing clay and/or a Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation...
Vegetative insecticidal proteins (Vips), which are secreted by some Bacillus thuringiensis strains during vegetative growth, exhibit high virulence to many pests. Vip3A proteins have been used commercially both in some bio-insecticides and in transge...
For many of the most important human bacterial infections, invasive disease severity is fueled by the cell damaging and pro-inflammatory effects of secreted pore-forming toxins (PFTs). Isogenic PFT-knockout mutants, e.g., Staphylococcus aureus lackin...
Aflatoxins are fungal metabolites that contaminate foods and feeds, causing adverse health effects in humans and animals. This study determined the occurrence of aflatoxins in fish feeds and their potential effects on fish. Eighty-one fish feeds were...
Staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) are a food safety concern. Existing methods for biologically active SE detection rely on the emetic response in live kittens or monkeys. This method suffers from low sensitivity, poor reproducibility, and causes ethi...
Snakebite envenomation is an affliction currently estimated to be killing upwards of 100,000 people annually. Snakebite is associated with a diverse pathophysiology due to the magnitude of variation in venom composition that is observed worldwide. Th...
Host defense peptides (HDPs) are efficient defense components of the innate immune system, playing critical roles in intestinal homeostasis and protection against pathogens. This study aims to investigate the interference effects of DON on the intest...
The sensitive detection of the mycotoxin citrinin (CIT) utilizing its fluorescence requires approaches to enhance the emission. In this respect, we studied the complexation of CIT and ochratoxin A (OTA) with Al3+ in methanol using absorption and fluo...
Palytoxin (PlTX) and analogues are produced by certain dinoflagellates, sea anemones, corals and cyanobacteria. PlTX can accumulate in the food chain and when consumed it may cause intoxication with symptoms like myalgia, weakness, fever, nausea, and...
Microcystin-LR (MC-LR) is the most widely distributed microcystin (MC) that is hazardous to environmental safety and public health, due to high toxicity. Microbial degradation is regarded as an effective and environment-friendly method to remove it,...
Snakebite envenoming is a neglected tropical disease that each year claims the lives of 80,000–140,000 victims worldwide. The only effective treatment against envenoming involves intravenous administration of antivenoms that comprise antibodies...
This study aimed to assess post-harvest contamination with mycotoxins in the context of the geographic and agroclimatic conditions in Romania in 2012–2015, a period that was characterized by extreme meteorological events and the effects of clim...
Botulinum neurotoxin type-A (BoNT-A) blocks the release of acetylcholine from peripheral cholinergic nerve terminals and is an important option for the treatment of disorders characterised by excessive cholinergic neuronal activity. Several BoNT-A pr...
Phα1β, a purified peptide from the venom of the spider Phoneutria nigriventer, and its recombinant form CTK 01512-2 are voltage-dependent calcium channel (CaV) blockers of types N, R, P/Q, and L with a preference for type N. These peptides...
Foot dystonia (FD) is a disabling condition causing pain, spasm and difficulty in walking. We treated fourteen (14) adult patients experiencing FD with onabotulinum toxin A injection into the dystonic foot muscles. We analyzed the spatiotemporal gait...
Chestnut drying is used to prevent postharvest losses and microorganism contamination during storage. Several studies reported the contamination by aflatoxins (AFs) produced by Aspergillus spp. in chestnuts. The effect of drying temperatures (from 30...
Aspergillus flavus is the most important mycotoxin-producing fungus involved in the global episodes of aflatoxin B1 contamination of crops at both the pre-harvest and post-harvest stages. However, in order to effectively control aflatoxin contaminati...
Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is a marine biotoxin that has high scientific value. However, the lack of efficient TTX extraction and preparation methods has led to a scarcity of TTX samples for clinical application. In this study, TTX from the liver of Takifugu...
Mycotoxins are emerging toxins in the marine environment, which can co-occur with algal toxins to exert synergistic or antagonistic effects for human seafood consumption. The current study assesses the cytotoxicity of the algal toxin okadaic acid, sh...
The non-proteinogenic amino acid beta-methyl-amino-l-alanine (BMAA) is a neurotoxin produced by cyanobacteria. BMAA accumulation in the brain of animals via biomagnification along the food web can contribute to the development of neurodegenerative di...
Ciguatoxins (CTXs), endemic from tropical and subtropical regions of the Pacific and Indian Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, have caused several human poisonings during the last decade in Europe. Ciguatera fish poisonings (CFP) in Madeira and Canary Isla...
Aflatoxins (AFs) are secondary metabolites produced by Aspergillus section Flavi during their development, particularly in maize. It is widely accepted that AFB1 is a major contaminant in regions where hot climate conditions favor the development of...
The remarkable ability of microorganisms to develop resistance to conventional antibiotics is one of the biggest challenges that the pharmaceutical industry currently faces. Recent studies suggest that antimicrobial peptides discovered in spider veno...
In summer 2017, a foodborne outbreak occurred in Central Italy, involving 26 workers employed in the post-earthquake reconstruction. After eating a meal provided by a catering service, they manifested gastrointestinal symptoms; 23 of them were hospit...
The literature on chemical weaponry of organisms is vast and provides a rich understanding of the composition and mechanisms of the toxins and other components involved. However, an ecological or evolutionary perspective has often been lacking and is...
The dichlorvos-ammonia (DV-AM) method is a simple but sensitive visual method for detecting aflatoxigenic fungi. Here we sought to develop a selective medium that is appropriate for the growth of aflatoxigenic fungi among soil mycoflora. We examined...
Although the relationship between protein-bound uremic toxins (PBUTs) and cardiac structure and cardiac mortality in chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been studied in the past, the association between cardiac dysfunction and PBUTs has not yet been stu...
Aflatoxins are carcinogenic mycotoxins that are produced by the filamentous fungus Aspergillus flavus, a contaminant of numerous food crops. Aflatoxins are synthesised via the aflatoxin biosynthesis pathway, with the enzymes involved encoded by the a...
Adenylate cyclase toxin (ACT, CyaA) is one of the important virulence factors secreted by the whooping cough bacterium Bordetella pertussis, and it is essential for the colonization of the human respiratory tract by this bacterium. Cytotoxicity by AC...
Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are known to play various roles in physiological processes, such as gene regulation, growth arrest and survival, in bacteria exposed to environmental stress. Type II TA systems comprise natural complexes consisting of pro...
Snakebite is a global tropical disease that has long had huge implications for human health and well-being. Despite its long-standing medical importance, it has been the most neglected of tropical diseases. Reflective of this is that many aspects of...
Deoxynivalenol (DON) contamination of feed may result in reduced growth, feed refusal, immunosuppression, and health problems in swine. Piglets can be exposed to DON via placenta before birth and via milk during lactation. The extent of early-life ex...
Snake venom-metalloproteinases (SVMPs) are the primary factors that disturb hemostasis and cause hemorrhage in the venomous snake bitten subjects. Kaouthiagin is a unique SVMP that binds and cleaves von Willebrand factor (vWF) at a specific peptide b...
Aflatoxins in feeds cause great health hazards to animals, and thus eventually to humans as well. The potential of clays from Arusha (AC), Kilimanjaro (KC), the Coast (CC), and Morogoro (MC), as well as volcanic ash (VA) and rice husk ash (RA), were...
The metabolism of the monoterpene α-thujone was investigated in humans after consumption of sage tea, by analyses of its metabolites 2-hydroxythujone, 4-hydroxythujone, and 7-hydroxythujone in urine. For the quantitation of α-thujone and...
Hazardous contaminants, such as nitrite and microcystin-leucine arginine (MC-LR), are released into water bodies during cyanobacterial blooms and may adversely influence the normal physiological function of hydrobiontes. The combined effects of nitri...
Aflatoxins are carcinogenic metabolites produced primarily by fungi within Aspergillus section Flavi. These fungi infect a wide range of crops in warm regions. Molecular phylogenetic analyses of fungi with S morphology (average sclerotium size < 4...
Many Gram-negative bacterial pathogens directly deliver numerous effector proteins from the bacterium to the host cell, thereby altering the target cell physiology. The already well-characterized effector delivery systems are type III, type IV, and t...
Shiga toxin (Stx) producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is responsible for causing hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a life-threatening thrombotic microangiopathy characterized by thrombocytopenia, hemolytic anemia, and acute renal failure after bacterial...
Abrin, a highly toxic plant toxin, is a potential bioterror weapon. Work from our laboratory and others have shown that abrin is highly resistant to both thermal and pH inactivation methods. We sought to evaluate the effectiveness of selected food pr...
Ontogenetic changes in venom composition have important ecological implications due the relevance of venom in prey acquisition and defense. Additionally, intraspecific venom variation has direct medical consequences for the treatment of snakebite. Ho...
Cone snails (genus Conus) are venomous marine snails that inject prey with a lethal cocktail of conotoxins, small, secreted, and cysteine-rich peptides. Given the diversity and often high affinity for their molecular targets, consisting of ion channe...
Background: Solanaceae plants produce glycoalkaloids (GAs) that affect various physiological processes of herbivorous insects and they are being tested as potential alternatives for synthetic pesticides. They cause lethal and sublethal effects. Never...
Kleptoplastic mixotrophic species of the genus Dinophysis are cultured by feeding with the ciliate Mesodinium rubrum, itself a kleptoplastic mixotroph, that in turn feeds on cryptophytes of the Teleaulax/Plagioselmis/Geminigera (TPG) clade. Optimal c...
Nonencapsulated (∆pXO2) Bacillus anthracis strains are commonly used as vaccines and for anthrax research, mainly in the mouse model. Previously, we demonstrated that the infection of rabbits, intranasally or subcutaneously, with the spores of a full...
Snake venom serine proteases (SVSPs) are enzymes that are capable of interfering in various parts of the blood coagulation cascade, which makes them interesting candidates for the development of new therapeutic drugs. Herein, we isolated and characte...
The root of Ilex asprella is a commonly used herb in Southern China, and also constitutes the main raw material of Canton herbal tea. I. asprella is readily contaminated by mildew because of rich nutrients. Aspergillus versicolor producing sterigmato...
Botulism, caused by exposure to one or more of the eight serotypes of botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) (BoNT/A through H), is often fatal without rapid treatment. [...]
Chlorotoxin (CTX) is a 36-amino-acid disulfide-containing peptide derived from the venom of the scorpion Leiurus quinquestriatus. CTX alters physiology in numerous ways. It interacts with voltage gated chloride channels, Annexin-2, and matrix metallo...
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