The apoptosis-inducing activity towards leukemia and lymphoma cells in a cyanobacterial culture collection is not associated with mouse bioassay toxicity

Cyanobacteria (83 strains and seven natural populations) were screened for content of apoptosis (cell death)-inducing activity towards neoplastic cells of the immune (jurkat acute T-cell lymphoma) and hematopoetic (acute myelogenic leukemia) lineage. Apoptogenic activity was frequent, even in strains cultured for decades, and was unrelated to whether the cyanobacteria had been collected from polar, temperate, or tropic environments. The activity was more abundant in the genera Anabaena and Microcystis compared to Nostoc, Phormidium, Planktothrix, and Pseudanabaena. Whereas the T-cell lymphoma apoptogens were frequent in organic extracts, the cell death-inducing activity towards leukemia cells resided mainly in aqueous extracts. The cyanobacteria were from a culture collection established for public health purposes to detect toxic cyanobacterial blooms, and 54 of them were tested for toxicity by the mouse bioassay. We found no correlation between the apoptogenic activity in the cyanobacterial isolates with their content of microcystin, nor with their ability to elicit a positive standard mouse bioassay. Several strains produced more than one apoptogen, differing in biophysical or biological activity. In fact, two strains contained microcystin in addition to one apoptogen specific for the AML cells, and one apoptogen specific for the T-cell lymphoma. This study shows the potential of cyanobacterial culture collections as libraries for bioactive compounds, since strains kept in cultures for decades produced apoptogens unrelated to the mouse bioassay detectable bloom-associated toxins

Caspase-dependent, geldanamycin-enhanced cleavage of co-chaperone p23 in leukemic apoptosis

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Quantitative proteomics analysis of zebrafish exposed to sub-lethal dosages of β-methyl-amino-L-alanine (BMAA)

The non-protein amino acid β-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) is a neurotoxin present in microalgae and shown to accumulate in the food web. BMAA has been linked to the complex neurodegenerative disorder of Guam and to increased incidents sporadic ALS. Two main neurotoxic routes are suggested; an excitotoxic by acting as an agonist towards glutamate receptors and a metabolic by misincorporating into cellular proteins. We have used zebrafish, an increasingly used model for neurodegenerative diseases, to further identify signaling components involved in BMAA-induced toxicity. Zebrafish embryos were exposed to sub-lethal dosages of BMAA and a label-free proteomics analysis was conducted on larvae 4 days post fertilization. The exposed larvae showed no developmental abnormalities, but a reduced heart rate and increased expression of GSK3 isoforms. Search towards a reviewed database containing 2968 entries identified 480 proteins. Only 17 of these were regulated 2-fold or more in the exposed larvae. Seven of these proteins could be associated to glutamate receptor signaling and recycling. The remaining nine have all been linked to disturbance in protein homeostasis, reactive oxygen species (ROS) development or neuronal cell death. We also found that BMAA influenced the endocannabinoid system by up-regulation of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) and that FAAH inhibitor URB597 reduced the BMAA effect on heart rate and GSK3 expression