Surfactants mammalian toxicity

Figure 4 Stabilized bromine antimicrobials are produced by eosinophils, a type of mammalian white blood cell. Bacteria are captured by phagocytosis and contained intracellularly within vesicles called phagosomes. Granules release cationic surfactants, lytic enzymes, and eosinophil peroxidase into the phagosome in a process known as degranulation. Eosinophil peroxidase, an enzyme that is structurally similar to the bromoperoxidases found in seaweed (Figure I), selectively catalyzes oxidation of bromide to hypobromite by reducing hydrogen peroxide to water. The hypobromite immediately reacts with nitrogenous stabilizers such as aminoethanesulfonic acid (taurine) to form more effective and less toxic antimicrobial agents.

Following some evidence that commercial emulsifiers used in crop spraying enhanced the sensitivity of a variety of cultured mammalian cells to some but not all viral infections, Lee et ai [89] studied the phenomenon in more detail. Enhanced sensitivity is not due to increased adsorption of virus it is specifically related to single-stranded RNA viruses and not to double-stranded viruses. The optimum concentration of surfactant is just sub-toxic . The mechanism eluded Lee and his co-workers who conclude it appears probable that the enhancing property is due to some intracellular activity of the emulsifier which either makes successful infection more likely. .. or allows a virus replicative mechanism some additional selective advantage in treated cells as compared to untreated . 

---