Pellagra, Mycotoxins and Tryptophan-Niacin Metabolism

Abstract

Pellagra has long been known to be a nutritional syndrome caused by nia-cin deficiency. Endemic pellagra has been traditionally associated with consumption of corn-based diet and is uncommon where rice or wheat is the staple food. Pellagra, in an endemic form among sorghum (Sorghum vulgare) eaters, was first described among poor agricultural laborers in Hyderabad, India (Gopalan and Srikantia, 1960). Extensive studies from India have shown that leucine toxicity, leucine-isoleucine imbalance and concomitant deficiency of vitamin B₆ may be the causative factors in the pathogenesis of pellagra in sorghum eaters (Srikantia, 1978). Several studies in pellagrins and in experimental animals have shown that there is a disturbance in tryptophan-nia-cin metabolism. Although rats do not show the characteristic dermal changes of pellagra, they show a biochemical disturbance of the tryptophan-niacin pathway.