BMAA

Neurotoxin BMAA found in dust from Great Salt Lake.

In a startling discovery, researchers have identified a chronic neurotoxin known as BMAA in dust particles from the Great Salt Lake's dried lakebed. This toxin, linked to neurodegenerative illnesses, has become a significant health concern due to its presence in windblown dust that reaches populous metropolitan areas along the Wasatch Front.

Dr James Metcalf collects dust samples from the Great Salt Lake.

The dust, enriched with heavy metals and now with identified cyanobacteria and their toxins, poses an unsettling environmental health risk.

Studies have indicated that chronic dietary exposure to BMAA can trigger ALS-type neuropathology, with the neurotoxin now considered the most substantial environmental risk factor for developing Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

Although BMAA exposure also causes laboratory animals to form Alzheimer’s-type neuropathology, its role in Alzheimer’s, as well as Parkinson’s, is not fully understood.

However, its connection to ALS has been corroborated by two recent epidemiological studies, marking it as the most robust environmental link to the disease thus far.

Notably, Dartmouth researchers observed a higher risk of ALS in residents living near cyanobacteria-infested rivers and lakes in New Hampshire, underscoring the potential hazard of BMAA exposure.

Studies have indicated that chronic dietary exposure to BMAA can trigger ALS-type neuropathology, with the neurotoxin now considered the most substantial environmental risk factor for developing Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

Furthering the concern, the nonprofit Brain Chemistry Labs in Jackson Hole has been monitoring BMAA and other cyanotoxins in water bodies like Lake Okeechobee and collaborating with the Calusa Water Keeper to study airborne cyanobacterial toxins in Florida.

International research groups from Sweden, China, and France are also investigating chronic BMAA exposure as an ALS risk factor.

While ninety percent of ALS cases are sporadic and ten percent familial, the threat posed by the inhalation of BMAA-laced dust remains unclear.

What is clear, however, is the urgent need for comprehensive studies to determine the potential increase in ALS risk due to exposure to the Great Salt Lake dust.

The study was published this week in the journal Toxins.

Cyanotoxin Analysis of Air Samples from the Great Salt Lake. James S. Metcalf, Sandra Anne Banack and Paul Alan Cox. Toxins 2023, 15(11), 659; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins15110659


Wyoming Non-Profit Brain Chemistry Labs Hosts Global Symposium on Neurodegenerative Effects of BMAA

For Immediate Release

 Jackson, Wyoming – October 26, 2023

 The Jackson Hole-based Brain Chemistry Labs team recently hosted a symposium for its global consortium of scientists.

The symposium served as an opportunity for researchers from around the world to unveil their latest, often not-yet-published findings and freely discuss them among their interdisciplinary colleagues.  

Dr. Paul Alan Cox presents an achievement award to Ph.D. student Katie Low for her studies of BMAA in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem with the Ricketts Conservation Foundation.

“We convened our extended network of neurologists, neuropathologists, chemists, biochemists, physiologists, epidemiologists, biologists, and Ph.D. students pursuing related fields. This event was particularly significant because it was our first in-person meeting since 2019,” commented Dr. Paul Alan Cox, Executive Director of the Brain Chemistry Labs.

With a focus on BMAA, a neurotoxin produced by cyanobacteria found in polluted lakes and rivers, the symposium explored how BMAA is produced and how it can be detected. BMAA has been found to cause a puzzling neurodegenerative disease among the Chamorro people of Guam, and is now considered by epidemiologists to be a risk factor for ALS. Scientists currently are attempting to determine if it could be a risk factor for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

 “Each person in our consortium holds an important piece of the puzzle. Bringing together these scientists from distant countries helps build a more complete picture,” Senior Scientist Dr. Sandra Banack said.

“Our common goal is to make a meaningful impact on the lives of patients suffering from these brutal diseases.”

Bo Landin, the director of a documentary on this effort called Toxic Puzzle, narrated by Harrison Ford, has recently made the film available for free public viewing at www.brainchemistrylabs.org. 

The Brain Chemistry Labs team has been testing a naturally occurring treatment option through various clinical trials, yielding promising results in terms of safety and effectiveness.

The team has also been successful in developing a diagnostic biomarker for ALS, which would accelerate diagnosis—and ultimately treatment—for patients with this serious disease.

Contact: Marya King, marya@ethnomedicine.org, 224-358-6578

Toxic Puzzle Film Explains Dangers of Cyanobacteria Blooms

Ethnobotanist Dr. Paul Cox with centenarians in Ogimi village, Okinawa.

For Immediate Release

Jackson, Wyoming – September 1, 2023

Deadly cyanobacterial blooms increasingly contaminate lakes and reservoirs.

Narrated by Harrison Ford, the documentary film Toxic Puzzle: Hunt for the Hidden Killer graphically portrays the threats of cyanobacteria to human health, including an increased risk of ALS and Alzheimer’s disease.

Jackson-based Brain Chemistry Labs scientists Paul Alan Cox and Sandra Banack sought clues to a mysterious paralytic disease that killed 25 percent of the adults in two villages in Guam.

“Research on the island was like watching a murder mystery,” Cox said.

“Who was the killer of these innocent villagers?”  

 The culprit they unmasked: neurotoxins in cyanobacteria. As the most ancient forms of life on earth, cyanobacteria produced the oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere.

However, when pollution enters lakes and reservoirs, green cyanobacterial scums and floating crusts quickly appear.

Exposure to the resulting neurotoxins can trigger serious illness and even death in people and domestic animals.

Toxic Puzzle takes viewers from Guam to Ogimi village in a remote part of Okinawa, where ALS and Alzheimer’s are unknown. The diet consumed by the 100-year-old villagers provided the scientists with clues on how to prevent and treat serious brain diseases. Studies of the Ogimi diet at the Brain Chemistry Labs here in Jackson has led to clinical trials, creating new hope for patients and their families.

 The film’s producers have provided a link for complimentary viewings of Toxic Puzzle at www.brainchemistrylabs.org.

Contact: Marya King, marya@ethnomedicine.org, 224-358-6578

How Would You Know if Neurotoxins are in Your Water?

Dr. James Metcalf in the Jackson, Wyoming laboratory. Photo credit: Dr. Paul Cox.

NEWS RELEASE 12-JUL-2023

Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Dr. James Metcalf is pursuing a singular mission: developing a simple way that ordinary people can detect neurotoxins in their water supplies.

His polite manner and English accent belie his extraordinary professionalism.

With decades of training in elite institutions in the United Kingdom under his belt, Dr. Metcalf is recognized as one of the world’s top experts on water-borne toxins produced by cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae).

Travelling from the Thau lagoon in Southern France to coastal waters in Florida, Dr. Metcalf has collected water samples of green goo from lakes and estuaries worldwide for analysis at the Brain Chemistry Labs.

 “The dream is for fishermen worried about their catch or ranchers worried about the water their cattle are drinking or even for recreation boaters or swimmers to have a simple and accurate way to test for BMAA and other neurotoxins,” Dr. Metcalf explains.

The methodologies and instrumentation in the lab are world-class but far beyond the abilities of the general population. Is it possible to invent a method of detection that does not require expensive equipment and extensive training? 

The question is not academic. One toxin analyzed by Dr. Metcalf and his colleagues at the Brain Chemistry labs is of particular concern: BMAA triggers ALS and Alzheimer’s neuropathology in laboratory animals. How can individuals know if the green scum on their nearby pond or lake represents a neurological threat? 

In the laboratory, Dr. Metcalf is building an immunoassay — a means of detecting a chemical through the test tube equivalent of an allergic reaction — to BMAA. 

Immunoassays are routinely used to test for everything from COVID to pregnancy, but up to this point, no rugged and accurate immunoassays for BMAA have been available.

 “The dream is for fishermen worried about their catch or ranchers worried about the water their cattle are drinking or even for recreation boaters or swimmers to have a simple and accurate way to test for BMAA and other neurotoxins,” Dr. Metcalf explains.

“In the laboratory, we can detect BMAA at very low levels, but I am trying to produce a simple test strip that can quickly alert an individual if a water body contains dangerous substances.”

The next steps are to prepare the technology for commercial use, a somewhat daunting task for a not-for-profit research institute like Brain Chemistry Labs.

Dr. Metcalf remains optimistic. “I am fairly confident that we can demonstrate a workable prototype for our biotech partners by the end of the summer,” he says. “It is a lot of work, but the benefit for the public will be immense.”

 

For further information: james@ethnomedicine.org, marya@ethnomedicine.org

307 734-1680

Initial SWFL study finds water, air pollutants could cause grave brain disease.

By: Amy Bennett Williams

Fort-Myers News-Press
Published 12:25 pm E.T. May 2, 2022 | Updated 2:12 pm E.T. May 2, 2022.

The good news: A first-of-its-kind field study of Southwest Florida air and water didn’t find widespread cyanobacteria toxins – mostly.

The bad news: It did find several neurotoxins as well as three forms of BMAA, a neurotoxin linked to grave brain diseases.

Two of the forms were in every one of 945 analyses done over five months between last July and November by Calusa Waterkeeper volunteers and analyzed at Wyoming’s Brain Chemistry Labs.

The results were released Monday.

Researchers call the neurotoxins’ presence ubiquitous and concerning.

Health policymakers have yet to weigh in. Neither the Florida Department of Health in Lee County nor the state Department of Environmental Protection conducts cyanotoxin air sampling.

Because no study of this kind has been done, the public health implications aren’t yet clear, and more research is needed before they are, says Paul Cox, executive director of Brain Chemistry Labs.

“Are the toxins there? Yes. Are they being airborne? Yes. Are they bad news? Yes,” said Cox. “I’m sorry we don’t have firmer answers (but) citizens are really concerned about this – correctly concerned.”

Though cyanobacteria, also called blue-green algae, has long been studied, research on its human health effects is ongoing on several fronts. Universities, government agencies, and nonprofits like Waterkeeper all are looking at different aspects.

This effort is the first to sample both air and water on-site with a custom-engineered monitoring device dubbed ADAM: airborne detection for algae monitoring, designed in collaboration with algae scientists, including Michael Parsons at Florida Gulf

Coast University, a member of the state’s Blue-Green Algae Task Force.

That acute exposure can make people sick and kill dogs is not in question. Longer-term effects are less clear, but algal toxins have been linked to a number of serious illnesses, including liver cancer and neurodegenerative diseases like ALS and Parkinson’s that may take years after exposure to develop.

Also not in question: Inhalation increases the toxins’ potency, exposing them directly to the bloodstream, says Calusa Waterkeeper John Cassani. Yet there are no federal or state guidelines on exposure, he said.

That’s why his nonprofit teamed up with nonprofit Brain Chemistry Labs to do what the government doesn’t: check the air for toxins produced by cyanobacteria.

The study aims to arm the public with basic information on the toxins they may be encountering in their daily lives.

“We all have a right to know the human health impacts of harmful algal blooms,” said board president Jim Watkins.

Volunteer scientists collected air and water from eight Lee County locations, from Matlacha to Punta Rassa and up the Caloosahatchee River to Alva, then samples went to Wyoming for pro bono analysis.

It’s important to note that these results are from a period without major blooms – a relatively calm stretch, algae-wise. Had they been sampling mid- bloom the results might have been quite different, says scientist and Waterkeeper volunteer Manuel Aparicio, who led the project to develop the device.

“The goal of our work is to inform the public,” Aparicio said. “We’ve established the method ... we’ve set up a program. We’ve got rangers, we’ve got the device (and) we’re going to continue to do this.”

‘Concerning’ molecule

One neurotoxin that appeared consistently is beta-Methylamino-L-alanine, known as BMAA.

BMAA is a compound with a fixed number of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms said Brain Chemistry Labs scientist James Metcalf. “These atoms can be arranged in different ways resulting in different compounds with the same mass. BMAA has 2 isomers – AEG and DAB – in cyanobacteria with the same mass and numbers of atoms. Therefore, it is important to make sure that you can identify each one separately and we did this in our analyses.”

Their presence is worrisome because a recent paper strongly associated BMAA with neurodegenerative disease and concluded BMAA “most likely could cause ALS,” Metcalf said. Both of its isomers have also shown neurotoxicity in animal models.

But how much makes people sick is an open question.

“We certainly need to do more air sampling to get a better picture of our airborne exposure,” Metcalf said.

In the meantime, “People should avoid exposure to blooms and scums ... We certainly need to do more research to understand the risk of airborne exposure and this may influence future policy.”

Cox agrees. “The scientists are uncertain if the doses are enough to trigger disease,” said Cox. “We just don’t know, and it would be irresponsible of me to indicate otherwise, but I am concerned. “What I don’t want to see is a book that comes out in 10 or 20 years and has a chapter called ‘The Florida Incident.’”

Protein Misfolds Spread Like Prions in Alzheimer’s

The addition of L-serine to the diet of mice restored their memory

We believe protein misfolding to be the ultimate cause of Alzheimer’s, ALS, and other neurodegenerative diseases.

We discovered that environmental toxins such as BMAA can trigger protein misfolding.

How do protein misfolds spread from neuron to neuron? L-serine is produced within astrocytes, which help neurons.

Recently, a French team found that mice which cannot produce L-serine in astrocytes have memory problems. The addition of L-serine to their diet restored their memory.

Deficiencies in L-serine production within astrocytes may allow protein misfolds to propagate within the brain.