DELETERIOUS MICROALGAL TOXINS

拟议的工作是阐明化学和药理学性质 对公众健康有严重影响的藻类和其他水生毒素 并提供设计预防措施所需的基本信息 措施，并在同一时间，它旨在发现新的网站具体 毒素作为研究重要生物机制的工具， 最终目的是阐明神经元的结构和功能， 受体如钠通道。 具体来说，隔离，结构 麻痹性贝类的测定及药理评价 在膝沟藻属中发现的PSP和相关毒素。和其他 生物，2）神经毒性贝类毒素（NSP）产生的佛罗里达 赤潮生物短裸藻（Gymatonium breve）; 蓝绿微囊藻，铜绿微囊藻，有时威胁公众 水系统，4）一种未知的毒素， 纽约和新英格兰的贝类中毒事件。 毒素将从大量培养的生物体和/或那些 在食物链中积累毒素的有机体。 药理 并对分离出的毒素进行神经生理学研究 与专家合作。 知识的衍生将是 分发给卫生官员和其他有关各方。

The proposed work is to elucidate the chemical and pharmacological nature of algal and other aquatic toxins which have serious impact on public health and provide basic information required to design preventive measures, and at the same time it is intended to discover new site-specific toxins as tools to investigate important biological mechanisms with an ultimate intention to elucidate the structure and function of neural receptors suh as sodium channels. Specifically, the isolation, structure determination and pharmacological evaluation of 1) paralytic shellfish poisons (PSP) and related toxins found in Gonyaulax spp. and other organisms, 2) neurotoxic shellfish poisons (NSP) produced by the Florida red tide organisms, Gymnodinium breve, 3) the hepatotoxins in the blue-green alga, Microcystis aeruginosa, which sometimes threatens public water systems, 4) an unidentified toxin which was involved in the mass shellfish poisoning in New York and New England, are planned. The toxins will be isolated from the mass-cultured organisms and/or those organisms which accumulated the toxins in the food chain. Pharmacological and neurophysiological studies of the isolated toxins will be carried out in collaboration with specialists. The derived knowledge will be disseminated to health officials and other concerned parties.