A Plethora of Neurotoxins

The cyanobacteria produce a plethora of natural products with a wide variety of bioactivities. Many of these compounds are potent toxins and pose a significant hazard to human health and the environment. In freshwater systems, blooms of hepatotoxic cyanobacteria are of greatest concern, while in marine environments neurotoxic species are more problematic. More than 65 neurotoxins have been isolated from cyanobacteria to date. Most notably, these include the highly potent alkaloids anatoxins and saxitoxins (also known as paralytic shellfish toxins, PSTs) however, a variety of other neurotoxic substances have also been isolated from cyanobacteria including the lipopeptides, jamaicamide, antillatoxin, and kalkitoxin, as well as the nonproteinogenic amino acid, p-W-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA). 

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