Abstract
Cylindrospermopsin (CYN) is a widely spread cyanotoxin that can occur in fresh water and food. This research aims to investigate CYN toxicity by studying the effects of drinking 0.25 nM of CYN-contaminated water from a natural source, and of the direct application of moderate concentrations of CYN on different animal targets. The chosen structures and activities are rat mitochondria inner membrane permeability, mitochondrial ATP synthase (ATPase) and rat liver diamine oxidase (DAO) activities (EC 1.4.3.22.), the force of the contraction of an excised frog heart preparation with functional innervation, and the viability of a human intestinal epithelial cell line (HIEC-6). The oral exposure to CYN decreased the reverse (hydrolase) activity of rat liver ATPase whereas its short-term, in vitro application was without significant effect on this organelle, DAO activity, heart contractions, and their neuronal regulation. The application of CYN reduced HIEC-6 cells’ viability dose dependently. It was concluded that CYN is moderately toxic for the human intestinal epithelial cells, where the regeneration of the epithelial layer can be suppressed by CYN. This result suggests that CYN may provoke pathological changes in the human gastrointestinal tract.
Highlights
The frequency of cyanobacteria blooms has been increasing worldwide due to climatic and anthropogenic factors [1]
Mitochondria are the common cell source of ATP needed for processes like transmembrane transport, muscle contraction, synthesis, secretion, and intracellular signaling
Drinking water contaminated with CYN for weeks could harm oxidative phosphorylation in rat mitochondria by affecting their protein synthesis, cytochrome 450, and inner
Summary
The frequency of cyanobacteria blooms has been increasing worldwide due to climatic and anthropogenic factors [1]. Cyanotoxins are a structurally diverse group, in which the most important are microcystins, nodularins, cylindrospermopsin (CYN), saxitoxin, anatoxin-a and their natural analogues [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. They manifest several major types of toxicity and act mainly as cytotoxins, hepatotoxins, neurotoxins, cardiotoxins, and dermatoxins [2,9]. CYN is a stable tricyclic quinidine alkaloid, whose presence in freshwater pools often increases [10] due to eutrophication and seasonal dynamics. The pleiotropic CYN targets are liver [1], kidney [11], heart, eye, lung, spleen, ovary, T lymphocytes, neutrophils and vascular endothelium
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