@article{ba13fa92bc764734bfdf908176274a15,
title = "Cyanobacterial neurotoxin BMAA and brain pathology in stranded dolphins",
abstract = " Dolphin stranding events occur frequently in Florida and Massachusetts. Dolphins are an excellent sentinel species for toxin exposures in the marine environment. In this report we examine whether cyanobacterial neurotoxin, β-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), is present in stranded dolphins. BMAA has been shown to bioaccumulate in the marine food web, including in the muscles and fins of sharks. Dietary exposure to BMAA is associated with the occurrence of neurofibrillary tangles and β-amyloid plaques in nonhuman primates. The findings of protein-bound BMAA in brain tissues from patients with Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease has advanced the hypothesis that BMAA may be linked to dementia. Since dolphins are apex predators and consume prey containing high amounts of BMAA, we examined necropsy specimens to determine if dietary and environmental exposures may result in the accumulation of BMAA in the brains of dolphins. To test this hypothesis, we measured BMAA in a series of brains collected from dolphins stranded in Florida and Massachusetts using two orthogonal analytical methods: 1) high performance liquid chromatography, and 2) ultra-performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. We detected high levels of BMAA (20–748 μg/g) in the brains of 13 of 14 dolphins. To correlate neuropathological changes with toxin exposure, gross and microscopic examinations were performed on cortical brain regions responsible for acoustico-motor navigation. We observed increased numbers of β-amyloid + plaques and dystrophic neurites in the auditory cortex compared to the visual cortex and brainstem. The presence of BMAA and neuropathological changes in the stranded dolphin brain may help to further our understanding of cyanotoxin exposure and its potential impact on human health. ",
author = "Davis, {David A.} and Kiyo Mondo and Erica Stern and Annor, {Ama K.} and Murch, {Susan J.} and Coyne, {Thomas M.} and Brand, {Larry E.} and Niemeyer, {Misty E.} and Sarah Sharp and Bradley, {Walter G.} and Cox, {Paul Alan} and Mash, {Deborah C.}",
note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the Herbert W. Hoover Foundation Award 2012-2017: Cyanobacterial toxin BMAA in the Marine Food Web, Cyanobacterial toxin BMAA in Stranded Dolphins, and Cyanobacterial Toxin BMAA and the Marine Environment: Findings in Stranded Dolphins, BMAA in Marine Environments, Cyanobacterial Toxin BMAA in Dolphins, http:// www.hwhfoundation.org/; to D.M. and D.D. D.M. and L.B. were supported by a National Science Foundation Award 2008-2009, Award Abstract #0742285, {"}BMAA in the food web of South Florida coastal waters,{"} https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/ showAward?AWD_ID=0742285. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Megan K. Stolen, MS of Hubbs Seaworld Research Institute for assistance with Florida dolphin specimen collection and Michael Moore, PhD of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. We wish to acknowledge Angela M. Amatruda, HT (ASCP) and the staff at AML Laboratories, Saint Augustine, FL for providing the application of silver stains to dolphin brain. We like to thank Sandra A. Banack, PhD of the Institute for Ethnomedicine and James Hungerford, PhD of the US Food and Drug Administration for their technical review. We also like to thank the Miami Brain Endowment Bank, a NIH NeuroBioBank, for providing donated postmortem human brain tissues used in these studies. We gratefully acknowledge Margaret Basile, MS and John Pablo, PhD formerly of University of Miami Department of Neurology for their technical assistance. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 Davis et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Copyright: Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",
year = "2019",
month = mar,
doi = "10.1371/journal.pone.0213346",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "14",
journal = "PLoS One",
issn = "1932-6203",
publisher = "Public Library of Science",
number = "3",
}