Microcystins in Aquatic Animals and Their Potential Threats to Human Health

Author: Xie Ping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: According to the book, cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, are a group of ancient organisms widely distributed in freshwater, brackish water, seawater, and terrestrial environments. They play important roles in the biogeochemical cycles of elements and in maintaining the structure, function, and biodiversity of ecosystems. On the other hand, these Gram-negative prokaryotes, although they cannot cause diseases in humans or animals, can produce a series of highly toxic natural toxins (known as microcystins) that threaten human health. Microcystins in Aquatic Animals and Their Potential Threats to Human Health is a full-length book with 250,000 words. Chapter 1 is an introduction to MC, mainly covering toxic cyanobacteria and MC toxicity, the chemical structure and properties of MC, stability, and the molecular mechanisms of toxicity. Chapter 2 introduces the extraction and detection techniques of MC in animals, and it is quite challenging that MC distributed in various tissues and organs of animals still requires relatively complex and cumbersome sample pretreatment (separation, purification) before analysis and determination. From Chapter 3 to Chapter 7, it provides a detailed introduction to all field and experimental studies on the uptake, clearance, and bioaccumulation of MC in aquatic animals (fish, mollusks, shrimp, and crabs) that the author has obtained domestically and internationally. Chapter 8 mainly introduces the pharmacokinetics in brief, and it is quite regrettable that research on the pharmacokinetic processes of MC in aquatic animals is very scarce, and MC pharmacokinetic parameters are rarely calculated. Chapter 9 discusses the general patterns of MC accumulation in aquatic animals, one of the important issues being whether MC undergoes biomagnification along the food chain. Chapter 10 discusses the harm of MC to human health, focusing on analyzing whether terrestrial mammals, including humans, are more vulnerable to MC than aquatic animals, particularly focusing on the possible relationship between the evolution of circulatory systems in different animal groups and blood pressure. After reading the last chapter, one might believe that for this liver vascular system-damaging toxin, the same dose of MC may have no significant effect on fish but can be fatal to mammals. It should be noted that so far, people know very little about the metabolic processes of MC in animals. Due to the stability of cyclic peptides to enzymatic degradation, the metabolism of MC in mammals may be very limited. This book is a specialized work on the bioaccumulation of microcystin (MC), a highly toxic natural cyclic peptide hepatotoxin produced by cyanobacteria, in aquatic animals and its potential threats to human health. The author first outlines the chemical structure and properties, stability, and molecular mechanisms of toxicity of MC, as well as the extraction and detection techniques of MC in animals. Next, it provides a detailed introduction to all field and experimental studies on the uptake, clearance, and bioaccumulation patterns of MC in aquatic animals (fish, mollusks, shrimp, and crabs) both domestically and internationally. Then, it briefly describes the pharmacokinetic processes of MC in aquatic animals and the general patterns of MC accumulation in aquatic animals. Finally, it systematically analyzes the harm of MC to human health (especially why humans and other mammals are more vulnerable to MC than aquatic animals). This book can be used as a reference for researchers and administrators in environmental toxicology, food safety, public health, environmental chemistry, aquaculture, and animal physiology, as well as for faculty and students in universities and colleges.