Toxins, Volume 10, Issue 11

Experiments were carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of three different biosorbents (banana peel, Pyracantha leaves, and Aloe powder) in removing aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁). A noncommercial mycotoxin binder (zeolite) was used as a reference material....

There is an increasing demand for products from natural sources, which includes a growing market for naturally-produced colorants. Filamentous fungi produce a vast number of chemically diverse pigments and are therefore explored as an easily accessib...

This study investigated effects of modified palygorskite (MPal) on immunity, antioxidant capacity, and intestinal barrier integrity in broiler chickens challenged with permitted feed Fusarium mycotoxin concentrations. One-day-old chicks were allocate...

Toxins and venoms produced by different organisms contain peptides that have evolved to have highly selective and potent pharmacological effects on specific targets for protection and predation. Several toxin-derived peptides have become drugs and ar...

In order to investigated current occurrence of major mycotoxins in dietary kelp in Shandong Province in Northern China, a reliable, sensitive, and rapid liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for...

There is a clear, unmet need for effective, lightweight, shelf-stable and economical snakebite envenoming therapies that can be given rapidly after the time of a snake’s bite and as adjuncts to antivenom therapies in the hospital setting. The s...

Water column bulk Pseudo-nitzschia abundance and the dissolved and particulate domoic acid (DA) concentrations were measured in the Santa Barbara Basin (SBB), California from 2009–2013 and compared to bulk Pseudo-nitzschia cell abundance and DA...

Aflatoxins (AFs), deoxynivalenols (DONs), and zearalenones (ZENs) are common mycotoxins that contaminate feedstuff, causing contamination of poultry products. In our study, these mycotoxins were quantified in 152 egg samples collected from markets in...

Cyanobacteria synthesize neurotoxic β-N-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA). The roles of this non-protein amino acid in cyanobacterial cells are insufficiently studied. During diazotrophic growth, filamentous cyanobacteria form single differentiated c...

Apples and apple-based products are among the most popular foods around the world for their delightful flavors and health benefits. However, the commonly found mold, Penicillium expansum invades wounded apples, causing the blue mold decay and ensuing...

Botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) intoxication can lead to the disease botulism, characterized by flaccid muscle paralysis that can cause respiratory failure and death. Due to the significant morbidity and mortality costs associated with BoNTs high toxicit...

Even if cancer represents a burden for human society, an exhaustive cure has not been discovered yet. Low therapeutic index and resistance to pharmacotherapy are two of the major limits of antitumour treatments. Natural products represent an excellen...

SS1P is an anti-mesothelin immunotoxin composed of a targeting antibody fragment genetically fused to a truncated fragment of Pseudomonas exotoxin A. Delayed responses reported in mesothelioma patients receiving SS1P suggest that anti-tumor immunity...

Studies on cyanobacteria in Vietnam are limited and mainly restricted to large reservoirs. Cyanobacterial blooms in small water bodies may pose a health risk to local people. We sampled 17 water bodies in the vicinity of urban settlements throughout...

Wheat, the main source of carbohydrates worldwide, can be attacked by a wide number of phytopathogenic fungi, included Alternaria species. Alternaria species commonly occur on wheat worldwide and produce several mycotoxins such as tenuazonic acid (TA...

Staphylococcus aureus is a nosocomial pathogen that can cause chronic to persistent infections. Among different mediators of pathogenesis, toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are emerging as the most prominent. These systems are frequently studied in Escher...

Nature endowed snakes with a lethal secretion known as venom, which has been fine-tuned over millions of years of evolution. Snakes utilize venom to subdue their prey and to survive in their natural habitat. Venom is known to be a very poisonous mixt...

Type II toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are highly prevalent in bacterial genomes and have been extensively studied. These modules involve in the formation of persistence cells, the biofilm formation, and stress resistance, which might play key roles in...

Rhabdomyolysis, a condition associated with the consumption of Yellow Knight mushrooms (Tricholoma equestre), was first reported in 2001. In response, some countries began to consider the mushroom as poisonous, whereas in others it is still consumed....

Ricin, a highly lethal toxin derived from the seeds of Ricinus communis (castor beans) is considered a potential biological threat agent due to its high availability, ease of production, and to the lack of any approved medical countermeasure against...

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is a toxin found in cereals as well as in processed products such as pasta, and causes substantial economic losses for stock breeding as it induces vomiting, reduced feeding, and reduced growth rates in piglets. Oxidative phospho...

Male Wistar rats were treated intraperitoneally (i.p.) with fumonisin B₁ (FB₁; 0, 20, 50 and 100 mg/kg dietary dose equivalent) for 5 and 10 days (n = 24–24 in each setting) to gain dose- and time-dependent effects on antioxidant status and oxi...

Fusarium graminearum as the main causal agent of Fusarium head blight (FHB) and its ability to produce trichothecenes was investigated by molecular techniques. A total of 37 strains isolated from the wheat, harvested in Serbia in 2005, 2008 and 2015,...

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are crucial effectors of the innate immune system. They provide the first line of defense against a variety of pathogens. AMPs display synergistic effects with conventional antibiotics, and thus present the potential for...

Immunoaffinity columns (IACs) are most popularly used for mycotoxin clean-up in complex matrices prior to chromatographic analysis. But, their high cost has limited their wide application and the regeneration of IACs for multiple instances of reuse i...

A novel, objective, and rapid computed motility inhibition (CMI) assay was developed to identify and assess sublethal injury in toxin-exposed boar spermatozoa and compared with a subjective visual motility inhibition (VMI) assay. The CMI values were...

The identification and quantification of okadaic acid (OA)/dinophysistoxin (DTX) analogues and pectenotoxins (PTXs) in Dinophysis samples collected from coastal locations around Japan were evaluated by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. The spe...

Staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) are the cause of staphylococcal food poisoning (SFP) outbreaks. Recently, many new types of SEs and SE-like toxins have been reported, but it has not been proved whether these new toxins cause food poisoning. To deve...

During severe bacterial infections, death and disease are often caused by an overly strong immune response of the human host. Acute toxic shock is induced by superantigen toxins, a diverse set of proteins secreted by Gram-positive staphylococcal and...

Assassin flies (Diptera: Asilidae) inject paralysing venom into insect prey during hunting, but their venoms are poorly characterised in comparison to those produced by spiders, scorpions, or hymenopteran insects. Here we investigated the composition...

Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) retinal intoxication induces glial activation and inflammatory response via the interaction with retinal neurons. In this study, rabbit retinal explant was used as a model to study neuronal and glial consequences of...

The oriental armyworm (OAW), Mythimna separata (Walker), is a destructive pest of agricultural crops in Asia and Australia. Commercialized Bt crops have performed very well against their target pests; however, very few studies have been done on the s...

As a black widow spider, Latrodectus tredecimguttatus has poisonous components not only in venomous glands but also in eggs. Our previous work had carried out a transcriptome analysis of the spider eggs in an attempt to probe into the molecular basis...

Snakes, scorpions, and spiders are venomous animals that pose a threat to human health, and severe envenomings from the bites or stings of these animals must be treated with antivenom. Current antivenoms are based on plasma-derived immunoglobulins or...

Several species of the dinoflagellate genus Dinophysis produce toxins that accumulate in bivalves when they feed on populations of these organisms. The accumulated toxins can lead to intoxication in consumers of the affected bivalves. The risk of int...

Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is traditionally associated with seafood from tropical regions, but recently TTX was detected in bivalve mollusks in more temperate European waters. In The Netherlands it was therefore decided to monitor TTX in shellfish harvested...

LMB-100 is a mesothelin-targeted recombinant immunotoxin (iTox) that carries a modified Pseuodomonas exotoxin A (PE) payload. PE kills cells by inhibiting synthesis of new proteins. We found that treatment of pancreatic cancer cells with LMB-100 for...

Hip Osteoarthritis (OA) causes pain and disability. Here we evaluate abobotulinumtoxinA (Dysport^®) (AboBoNT-A) injections versus placebo as a novel treatment option to improve hip range of motion, pain and quality of life. This prospective randomized...

Zearalenone (ZEN) is an estrogen-like mycotoxin produced by Fusarium that seriously compromises the safety of animal and human health. In this study, our aim was to evaluate the protective effect of Bacillus velezensis A2 against biochemical and path...

Crop contamination by aflatoxin B₁ is a current problem in tropical and subtropical regions. In the future, this contamination risk may be expanded to European countries due to climate change. The development of alternative strategies to prevent myco...

The development of Dinophysis populations, producers of diarrhetic shellfish toxins, has been attributed to both abiotic (e.g., water column stratification) and biotic (prey availability) factors. An important process to consider is mixotrophy of the...

Tea is one of the most popular beverages all over the world. Being an everyday drink for almost everyone, for centuries tea was considered safe and healthy. However, fungal contamination of tea at any stage of commodity production can pose a serious...

In response to global warming, an increase in cyanobacterial blooms is expected. In this work, the response of two native species of Planktothrix agardhii and Aphanizomenon gracile, as well as the response of two species alien to Europe—Chrysos...

An end-product market survey on biotoxins in commercial wild harvest shellfish (Plebidonax deltoides, Katelysia spp., Anadara granosa, Notocallista kingii) during three harvest seasons (2015–2017) from the coast of New South Wales, Australia fo...

The toxic effects of the typically noxious bloom-forming dinoflagellate Karenia mikimotoi were studied using the allelopathic experimental system under controlled laboratory conditions. The potency of intact cell suspensions with whole cells, cell-fr...

Background: Low-frequency magnetic fields (LF-MFs) dampen the citrinin output by Monascus purpureus in fermentations. The influence of LF-MFs on biosynthesis by M. purpureus was evaluated at the protein level. Methods: Cultures were treated with a 1....

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is the main virulence factor of Gram-negative bacteria, which can incite inflammation in tissues by inducing cells to secrete a variety of proinflammatory mediators, including cytokines, chemokines, interleukins, and prostagl...

Microcystin (MC) exposure is an increasing concern because more geographical locations are covered with cyanobacterial blooms as eutrophication and bloom-favoring environmental factors become more prevalent worldwide. Acute MC exposure has been linke...

Hepatoblastoma incidence has been associated with different environmental factors even if no data are reported about a correlation between aflatoxin exposure and hepatoblastoma initiation. Considering that hepatoblastoma develops in infants and child...

Structural analysis of peptides with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy generally relies on knowledge of the primary sequence to enable assignment of the resonances prior to determination of the three-dimensional structure. Resonance assig...