Detection Methods for Cynobacterial toxins

Cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, commonly occur in a variety of water types throughout the world. A variable, but, high proportion of the cyanobacterial blooms and scums, which can develop annually in lakes, reservoirs, canals and slow-flowing rivers, contain potent toxins. Although animal poisonings and human health problems associated with the ingestion of, or contact with, cyanobacterial scums have long been recognized, a developing understanding of the health hazards posed by the toxins requires that reliable, sensitive, specific and convenient methods are available for their detection and quantification. Detection methods for cynobacterial toxins looks at the application of biological, toxicological, biochemical and physicochemical techniques in studies of cyanobacterial toxins and at experimental methods that have identified at least 50 cyanobacterial compounds toxic to vertebrates. Academics, public health bodies, environmental protection agencies and water companies are all involved in monitoring cyanobacterial levels and effects, and this book will help to ensure that their research is not duplicated, is standardized and comparable, and that optimal progress can be made in an important area that is still in its developing stages.

Table of Contents:
Health problems from exposure to cyanobacteria and proposed safety guidelines for drinking and recreational water; An epidemiological critique of reports of human illness associated with cyanohacteria; Cyclic peptide hepatotoxins from fresh water cyanobacteria water blooms collected in the river dnieper reservoirs and other water bodies from the European part of Russia; Structural analysis of cyanobacterial toxins; Determinations of anatoxin-a, homoanatoxin and propylanatoxin in cyanobacterial extracts by HPLC, GC-mass spectrometry and capillary electrophoresis; Enantiomer-specific analysis of homoanatoxin-a. a cyanophyte neurotoxin; Neurotoxins from Australian Anabaena; The analysis of microcystin-LR in water: Application in water treatment studies; The analysis of microcystins in raw and treated water; Application of HPLC and mass spectrometry (MALDI) to the detection and identification of toxins from microcystis, oscillatoria and aphanizomenon from several freshwater reservoirs; Routes of intoxication; Testing of toxicity in cyanobacteria by cellular assays; A sensitive bioscreen for detection of cyclic peptide toxins of the microcystin class; The inhibition of protein phosphatases by toxins: Implications for health and an extremely sensitive and rapid bioassay for toxin detection; Detection of hepatotoxins by protein phosphatase inhibition assay: advantages, pitfalls and anomalies; Alternatives to the mouse bioassay for cyanobacterial toxicity assessment; Evaluation of assay methods for the determination of cyanobacterial hepatotoxicity; The role of synthetic chemistry in the production of standards for toxin analysis; Sources of uncertainty in assessing the health risk of cyanobacterial blooms in drinking water supplies; Standing committee of analysts; Toxic cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) in Portuguese freshwaters; Screening of cyanobactenal toxins in microcystis aeruginosa collected from blooms and cultures; Toxicity studies with blue-green algae from Flemish reservoirs; Cases of cyanobacterial toxicoses on Swiss alpine pastures; Biological and economic significance of benthic cyanobacteria in two Scottish highland lochs; First results on the occurrence of microcystin-LR in Berlin and Brandenburg lakes; Variation of cyanobacterial hepatotoxins in Finland; A method for the detection of cyanobacterial peptide toxins by HPLC; Release and degradation of microcystin during a microcystis aeru bloom in a freshwater reservoir; Characterization of hepatotoxins from freshwater oscillatoria species: Variation in toxicity and temporal expression; Expression of cyanotoxins in environmental biomass containing species of oscillatoria; A simple and rapid method for extraction of toxic peptides from cyanobacteria; Phosphatase assay as a determinant of hepatotoxin toxicity; Detection of cyanobacterial (blue-green algal) peptide toxins by protein phosphatase inhibition; Investigation of the solution conformation of microcystins-LR and -RR by high field nuclear magnetic resonance; The tandem mass spectrometry of nodularin, microcystins and other cyclic peptides.