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Mode of Action and Toxicity of Major Cyanobacterial Toxins and Corresponding Chemical Variants

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Microbial Toxins

Part of the book series: Toxinology ((TOXI))

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Abstract

Toxic cyanobacterial blooms are often found in aquatic ecosystems, spanning from fresh to brackish waters and marine waters, and may reflect the increased eutrophication of these environments and alterations in climate. Cyanobacterial toxins (cyanotoxins) are secondary metabolites, with very different chemical structures, and highly reactive to various biological molecules. Scientists and public health and environmental agencies have recognized that contamination by cyanobacterial toxins is a global and serious environmental and health threat. Notwithstanding, it is notorious the efforts done so far from the scientific community that resulted in the isolation, purification, identification, structure elucidation of several of these groups of toxins from many ecosystems worldwide as well as the identification of respective molecular targets and biological activities. The chemical variability of cyanotoxins is a critical determinant of the biological activity leading to a need to classify the different groups but also to distinguish the several chemical variants within each group. Cyanotoxins are thus currently classified on the basis of their chemical composition and toxic activity. This chapter aims to review and summarize key information concerning this class of natural compounds produced by cyanobacteria, as perceived by the authors being critical for understanding the impact of these compounds in the environment, and thus necessary for carrying out and validating risk assessment studies.

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Acknowledgments

This research was partially supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the COMPETE-Operational Competitiveness Programme and national funds through FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology under the project UID/Multi/04423/2013. This research was also supported by the project NOVELMAR (reference NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000035), co-financed by the North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Norte 2020) under the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), through the ERDF. A. Campos work is supported by a post-doctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/103683/2014).

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  1. Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR/CIMAR), University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Joana Machado, Joana Azevedo, Vitor Vasconcelos & Alexandre Campos

  2. Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Vitor Vasconcelos

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  4. Alexandre Campos
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Correspondence to Joana Machado , Joana Azevedo , Vitor Vasconcelos or Alexandre Campos .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    P. Gopalakrishnakone

  2. Biology Department, Wilson College , Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, USA

    Brad Stiles

  3. Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine and Instituto Clodomiro Picado, Faculty of Microbiology, University of Costa Rica , San Pedro de Montes de Oca, Costa Rica

    Alberto Alape-Girón

  4. Département de pathologie et microbiologie, Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, Université de Montréal , Saint-Hyacinthe, Canada

    J. Daniel Dubreuil

  5. College of Pharmacy, Roseman University of Health Sciences, Henderson, Nevada, USA

    Manas Mandal

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© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Machado, J., Azevedo, J., Vasconcelos, V., Campos, A. (2016). Mode of Action and Toxicity of Major Cyanobacterial Toxins and Corresponding Chemical Variants. In: Gopalakrishnakone, P., Stiles, B., Alape-Girón, A., Dubreuil, J., Mandal, M. (eds) Microbial Toxins. Toxinology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6725-6_30-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6725-6_30-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6725-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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