P-N-Methylamino-l-alanine

Cyanobacteria - the Jekyll and Hyde of marine organisms - are a novel source of potential new pharmaceutical compounds (2618-2620, 2662). On the other hand, toxic cyanobacterial blooms in lakes, rivers, and water storage reservoirs have occurred worldwide (2621, 2663, 2664). For example, 60 patients in a Brazil hemodialysis unit died after drinking water from a lake contaminated with cyanobacterial microcystins (2622), not unlike the toxicity of red tides (2623). Cyanobacteria also produce the highly toxic neurotoxin, p-N-methylamino-L-alanine, which may be produced by all cyanobacteria (2624, 2665). 

Environmental and nutritional factors may also affect the development of Alzheimer disease and other mental illness. Aluminum frequently accumulates in the neurons containing neurofibrillary tangles. Copper and zinc ions can cause the amyloid Ap to aggregate. However, Zn + may actually protect against neurotoxicity. The amino acid P-N-methylamino-L-alanine, a constituent of the toxic seeds of a type of palm Cycas circimlis L.), may have induced both AES and Guam disease, a condition resembling Parkinson disease, in a population in Guam that traditionally used these seeds as food. ... 

Copani A., Canonico P L., Catania M. V., Aronica E., Bruno V., Ratti E., Van Amsterdam F. T. M., Gaviraghi G., andNicoletti F. (1991). Interaction between /3-N-methylamino-L-alanine and excitatory amino acid receptors in brain slices and neuronal cultures. Brain Res. 558 79-86. 

Copani, A., Canonico, P.L. and Nicoletti, F. (1990). fi-N-methylamino-L-alanine (L-BMAA) is a potent agonist of metabolotropic glutamate receptors, Eur. J. Pharmacol. 181 327-328. 

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