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Eight naturally purified microcystins (MCs), including MC-LR, MC-FR, MC-WR, MC-RR, [D-Asp3] MC-FR, [D-Asp3] MC-WR, [D-Asp3] MC-RR and [Dha7] MC-RR were utilized to determine the effects of amino acid substitutions and modifications on the... more
Eight naturally purified microcystins (MCs), including MC-LR, MC-FR, MC-WR, MC-RR, [D-Asp3] MC-FR, [D-Asp3] MC-WR, [D-Asp3] MC-RR and [Dha7] MC-RR were utilized to determine the effects of amino acid substitutions and modifications on the MC-induced phosphatase inhibitory activity and animal toxicity. It was found that the replacement of the non-polar amino acid L-leucine at the second position of these heptacyclic peptide toxins by a polar L-arginine greatly reduced their animal toxicities and inhibitory activities against protein phosphatase 1 (PP-1) and 2A (PP-2A). Demethylation of methyldehydroalanine at the seventh amino acid position of MC-RR showed the least animal toxicity and phosphatases inhibition. The loss of methyl group on the common methylaspartic acid (MeAsp) at the third position of MCYST-FR, MCYST-WR and MCYST-RR did not alter their toxicity levels, but significantly reduced their activities in PP-1 inhibition. It suggests that the methyl group on MeAsp is essentia...
A simplified high-performance liquid chromatography method to measure skatole and indole in porcine plasma without the use of acetonitrile was developed and validated in this study. The mobile phase consisted of water and methanol used in... more
A simplified high-performance liquid chromatography method to measure skatole and indole in porcine plasma without the use of acetonitrile was developed and validated in this study. The mobile phase consisted of water and methanol used in a gradient programme. Fluorescence detection was performed on the supernatant obtained from plasma after protein precipitation with 100% acetone. Limits of quantification were 0.5 ng∙ml-1 for skatole and 1.0 ng∙ml-1 for indole. Accuracy and precision had less than 12% deviation in the linear ranges (0.5–256 ng∙ml-1 and R2 = 0.9999 for skatole, 1.0–256 ng∙ml-1 and R2 = 0.9999 for indole). The correlation between plasma and serum concentrations was strong for skatole (slope = 1.01, R2 = 0.999) and moderate for indole (slope = 0.65, R2 = 0.95). Analysis of skatole in plasma was in good accordance with our previous acetonitrile-based method (slope = 0.91, R2 = 0.988). The proposed method is suited for rapid routine analysis because of its high selectiv...
marine drugs
Natural phytoplankton blooms of the dinoflagellate Alexandrium minutum, milkfish (Chanos chanos) exposed to natural blooms, sediment and mangrove crab (Scylla serrata) were analysed for paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins by... more
Natural phytoplankton blooms of the dinoflagellate Alexandrium minutum, milkfish (Chanos chanos) exposed to natural blooms, sediment and mangrove crab (Scylla serrata) were analysed for paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins by high-performance liquid chromatography. The toxin profiles of milkfish and mangrove crab were similar to that of A. minutum collected from blooming fishponds. In a laboratory A. minutum-blooming environment, the stomach and intestine of milkfish accumulated paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins during the exposure period. The non-visceral tissues were non-toxic. However, milkfish lost their entire body burden of toxin on the first day of transferring to a toxic algae-free environment. The result shows that milkfish concentrate paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins in digestive organs and did not retain toxins.
Dongsha Atoll (also known as Pratas) in Taiwan is the northernmost atoll in the South China Sea and a designated marine national park since 2007. The marine park's scope of protection covers the bio-resources of its waters in addition... more
Dongsha Atoll (also known as Pratas) in Taiwan is the northernmost atoll in the South China Sea and a designated marine national park since 2007. The marine park's scope of protection covers the bio-resources of its waters in addition to uplands, so it is important to have data logging information and analyses of marine flora and fauna, including their physiology, ecology, and genetics. As part of this effort, we investigated Symbiodinium associations in scleractinian corals from Dongsha Atoll through surveys carried out at two depth ranges (shallow, 1-5 m; and deep, 10-15 m) in 2009 and during a bleaching event in 2010. Symbiodinium composition was assessed using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of 28S nuclear large subunit ribosomal DNA (nlsrDNA). Our results showed that the 796 coral samples from seven families and 20 genera collected in 2009 and 132 coral samples from seven families and 12 genera collected in 2010 were associated with Symbiodinium C, D and C+D...
Dietary fucoxanthin (FX), a carotenoid compound from brown algae, was found to increase docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) and arachidonic acid (ARA, 20:4n-6) in the liver of mice. DHA and ARA are known to be biosynthesized from the... more
Dietary fucoxanthin (FX), a carotenoid compound from brown algae, was found to increase docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) and arachidonic acid (ARA, 20:4n-6) in the liver of mice. DHA and ARA are known to be biosynthesized from the respective precursor α-linolenic acid (ALA, 18:3n-3) and linoleic acid (LNA, 18:2n-6), through desaturation and chain elongation. We examined the effect of FX on the fatty acid metabolism in HepG2 cells (Hepatocellular carcinoma, human). In the first experiment, cells were co-treated with ALA (100 μM) and FX (0-100 μM) or vehicle for 48 h. FX increased eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5n-3), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA, 22:5n-3), DHA at concentrations of ≥50 μM. To clarify the change in the metabolism of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), in the second experiment, cells were co-treated with universally-[(13)C]-labeled (U-[(13)C]-) ALA (100 μM) and FX (100 μM) for 0.5, 3, 6, 24 and 48 h. [(13)C] labeled-EPA, DPA and DHA content in HepG2 cells were all incre...
Hepatotoxic microcystins are non-ribosomal cyclic peptides that disrupt cellular control processes through inhibition of protein phosphatases 1 and 2A, which functions on dephosphorylation. Due to worldwide occurrence of Microcystis,... more
Hepatotoxic microcystins are non-ribosomal cyclic peptides that disrupt cellular control processes through inhibition of protein phosphatases 1 and 2A, which functions on dephosphorylation. Due to worldwide occurrence of Microcystis, primary producer of these toxins, World Health Organization (WHO) recommended regulation on the use of drinking and recreational waters. Microcystins have almost 80 congeners with MC-LR as the most studied. MC-RR, another well-demanded congener is not as stable as MC-LR when it comes to storage in solvents and also in the analysis, making it more challenging for production. This study aims to analyze the microcystin composition in the laboratory cultured Microcystis to choose which of the clones have the potential for mass cultivation for toxin standard production. Ten laboratory clones from China, France and Taiwan were profiled yielding several MC congeners ranging from MC-LR, -RR, -WR, -FR and desmethyl group. Among the clones, M. TN-4 was chosen sin...
Orange-spotted grouper (Epinephelus coioides) with protogynous hermaphroditic features are one of the most economically important aquaculture species in Taiwan. However, larvae stage grouper are susceptible to infection by the bacterial... more
Orange-spotted grouper (Epinephelus coioides) with protogynous hermaphroditic features are one of the most economically important aquaculture species in Taiwan. However, larvae stage grouper are susceptible to infection by the bacterial pathogen Vibrio alginolyticus. To better understand the molecular mechanisms of the immune response to V. alginolyticus in Epinephelus coioides larvae, we used high-throughput deep sequencing technology to study the effect of infection on gene expression. A total of 114,851,002 reads were assembled, consisting of 9,687,355,560 nucleotides; these were further assembled into 209,082 contigs with a mean length of 372 bp. Gene ontology (GO) analysis of the transcriptome revealed 12 cellular component subcategories, 16 molecular function subcategories, and 42 biological process subcategories (P value <0.05). A total of 32664 Epinephelus coioides genes were mapped to the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG); 1504 differentially expressed genes...
Microcystin-LR (MC-LR), a cyanobacterial toxin, is a potent inhibitor of protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) and protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A). PP1 and PP2A are critical regulators in embryonic development. However, the effects of MC-LR in... more
Microcystin-LR (MC-LR), a cyanobacterial toxin, is a potent inhibitor of protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) and protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A). PP1 and PP2A are critical regulators in embryonic development. However, the effects of MC-LR in embryonic development have been controversial. MC-LR has been demonstrated to be highly toxic in medaka, but not in zebrafish or rabbit embryos. The causes of difference may be due to membrane impermeability that impaired the delivery of MC-LR into cytoplasm of zebrafish and rabbit embryos. Therefore, we microinjected MC-LR directly into developing zebrafish embryos and investigated the effects of MC-LR on embryonic development. We demonstrated that MC-LR induced the lethality of zebrafish embryos in a dose- and time-dependent manner. MC-LR also induced the loss of blastomere coherence via the interference of beta-catenin and cadherins distributions. Furthermore, the MC-LR treated fry revealed various developmental defects. These results suggested that MC...
High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using fluorescent detection following post-column alkaline degradation and a sample preparation procedure for the analysis were established to detect tetrodotoxins (TTXs) in seafood. In south... more
High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using fluorescent detection following post-column alkaline degradation and a sample preparation procedure for the analysis were established to detect tetrodotoxins (TTXs) in seafood. In south Taiwan Prefectures, each specimen of shellfishes and gobies, collected from Chiayi, Tainan, and Pingtung from January 1997 to May 1998, was analyzed by HPLC to detect the presence and quantity of TTXs. Overall results showed that only 5 specimens out of 557 specimens contained TTXs; the toxic species were gastropod Natica lineata and Nassarius livescens. The highest TTX content is 10.0 microg/g in N. livescens. Gobies and other species of shellfishes were nontoxic. Although the rate of toxic specimens in all samples was low and showed no seasonal trends, the TTX contents of toxic specimens were higher than safety criteria value.
ABSTRACT Neuro-inflammation is implicated as a major pathogenic factor in Parkinson's disease (PD). Dietary supplements of Chlorella pyrenoidosa possess great anti-inflammatory activities, but its neuroprotective effect remains... more
ABSTRACT Neuro-inflammation is implicated as a major pathogenic factor in Parkinson's disease (PD). Dietary supplements of Chlorella pyrenoidosa possess great anti-inflammatory activities, but its neuroprotective effect remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of polysaccharides from Chlorella pyrenoidosa (CPS) on motor activity, dopamine expressions, microglial activation, and peripheral immunomodulatory responses in 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced mouse model of PD. The results of this study indicated that CPS reduced bradykinesia, inhibited the loss of striatal dopamine and its metabolites, and led to an increase in tyrosine hydroxylase in PD mice. In addition, CPS also suppressed the striatal Emr1 expression and tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β and IL-6 levels in serum. Furthermore, the gut immune biomarkers such as serum diamine oxidase and small intestinal secretory immunoglobulin A were enhanced by CPS treatment. These findings demonstrate that CPS has protective effect in MPTP-induced neurotoxicity in this model of PD via its immunomodulatory action.
This is the first report on microcystins from Microcystis aeruginosa Ku¨tzing in Taiwan. A total of nine strains of cyanobacteria have been isolated from eutrophic aquaculture ponds and water reservoirs. By mouse toxicity assay, six of... more
This is the first report on microcystins from Microcystis aeruginosa Ku¨tzing in Taiwan. A total of nine strains of cyanobacteria have been isolated from eutrophic aquaculture ponds and water reservoirs. By mouse toxicity assay, six of the nine strains had 100 in the range of 25–100 ...
Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxin profiles were compared among four culture strains of Alexandrium minutum. GTX-1, 2, 3 and 4 are the PSP toxins that occur in A. minutum, and other PSP toxins were not detected. When comparing the... more
Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxin profiles were compared among four culture strains of Alexandrium minutum. GTX-1, 2, 3 and 4 are the PSP toxins that occur in A. minutum, and other PSP toxins were not detected. When comparing the toxin profile of four A. minutum strains, GTX1 and 4 were the major toxins in Amtk1, Amtk2, and Amtk4, but in Amtk7, GTX3 and 2 were the major toxins. The results indicate that strains with various toxin profiles exist in southern Taiwan, and suggest that the comparison of the toxin profiles between strains at different localities is difficult. Additionally, the toxin profiles of A. minutum strains cultured in the same environment were different, suggesting that it was owing to the intrinsic nature of toxic algae.
Purple clams, Hiatula diphos Linnaeus, are filter-feeding bivalves and maculated ivory shells. Babylonia areolata Link are carnivorous gastropods. Both shellfishes are popular seafood delicacies among the Taiwanese. Hiatula diphos were... more
Purple clams, Hiatula diphos Linnaeus, are filter-feeding bivalves and maculated ivory shells. Babylonia areolata Link are carnivorous gastropods. Both shellfishes are popular seafood delicacies among the Taiwanese. Hiatula diphos were forced to contain gonyautoxins (GTXs) in this research by feeding them with cells of Alexandrium minutum Halim, a toxic dinoflagellate species responsible for the paralytic shellfish poisonings in Taiwan. The intoxicated purple clams of known toxicity and toxin composition were fed to B. areolata to observe the transmission and transformation of GTXs among this shellfish. It was found that the toxin composition in bivalve and gastropod were similar to that in dinoflagellate. Our data provide evidence for food-chain transmission of paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins, from dinoflagellate to gastropod through a filter-feeding bivalve. The transmitted GTX-I. -II. -III and -IV of A. minutum could only be found in the viscera of these shellfish. There was a notable degradation of GTX-I in the ivory shell that resulted in a decrease in toxicity while the total amount of toxins was accumulatively increasing.
Contamination of shellfish with paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins (PST) produced by toxic harmful algal blooms (HABs) have been negatively affecting the shellfish and aquaculture industries worldwide. Therefore, accurate and early... more
Contamination of shellfish with paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins (PST) produced by toxic harmful algal blooms (HABs) have been negatively affecting the shellfish and aquaculture industries worldwide. Therefore, accurate and early identification of toxic phytoplankton species is crucial in HABs surveillance programs that allow fish-farmers to take appropriate preventive measures in shellfish harvesting and other aquaculture activities to overcome the negative impacts of HABs on human health. The identification of toxic dinoflagellates present in the water is currently a time-consuming operation since it requires skillful taxonomists and toxicologists equipped with optical and scanning electron microscopes as well as sophisticated equipment, for example, high-performance liquid chromotography-fluorescence detection. In this paper, a two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE)-based proteomic approach was applied to discriminate between toxic and nontoxic strains of Alexandrium minutum. Variation in morphological features between toxic and nontoxic strains was minimal and not significant. Also, variation in 2-DE protein patterns within either toxic or nontoxic strains was low, but pronounced differences were detected between toxic and nontoxic strains. The most notable differences between these strains were several abundant proteins with pIs ranging from 4.8 to 5.3 and apparent molecular masses between 17.5 and 21.5 kDa. Groups of proteins, namely NT1, NT2, NT3, and NT4, were consistently found in all nontoxic strains, while T1 and T2 were prominent in the toxic strains. These specific protein spots characteristic for toxic and nontoxic strains remained clearly distinguishable irrespective of the various growth conditions tested. Therefore, they have the potential to serve as "taxonomic markers" to distinguish toxic and nontoxic strains within A. minutum. Initial studies revealed that the expression pattern of T1 was tightly correlated to toxin biosynthesis in the examined alga and may be used to serve as a potential toxin indicator.
Polyclonal antibodies for microcystin-leucine-arginine (MCYST-LR) were generated from rabbits after immunizing the animals with MCYST-LR conjugated with gamma-globulin. A competitive direct enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cdELISA) and... more
Polyclonal antibodies for microcystin-leucine-arginine (MCYST-LR) were generated from rabbits after immunizing the animals with MCYST-LR conjugated with gamma-globulin. A competitive direct enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cdELISA) and a competitive indirect ELISA (ciELISA) were used for the characterization of the antibodies and for analysis of the toxin in algal cultures and dietary supplements. The concentrations causing 50% inhibition (IC(50)) of binding of MCYST-horseradish peroxidase (MCYST-HRP) to the solid-phase antibodies by MCYST-LR, MCYST-arginine-arginine variant (MCYST-RR), MCYST-tyrosine-arginine variant (MCYST-YR), and nodularin (NODLN) in the cdELISA were found to be 0.10, 0.12, 0.14, and 0.20 ng/mL, respectively. In the presence of algae matrix, the detection limit is less than 10 ppb. The overall analytical recovery of MCYST-LR (25 to 500 ng/g) added to the algal dietary supplements and then extracted with 0.1 M ammonium bicarbonate in the cdELISA was found to be 83.7%. Analysis of MCYSTs in algal cultures and dietary supplements showed that six of eleven cultures produce MCYSTs, and five of the algal cultures were not MCYST producers. Eight of eleven tested commercial algal dietary supplements contained MCYSTs at a level lower than 100 ppb. The presence of MCYST-LR in the Microcystis aeruginosa culture was confirmed by high-performance liquid chromatography.
Okadaic acid (OA) is a common marine biotoxin that accumulates in bivalves and causes diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP). This study generated a monoclonal antibody (mAb) specific to OA from a hybridoma cell line, 6B1A3, which was... more
Okadaic acid (OA) is a common marine biotoxin that accumulates in bivalves and causes diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP). This study generated a monoclonal antibody (mAb) specific to OA from a hybridoma cell line, 6B1A3, which was obtained by fusion of myeloma cells (P3/NS1/1-AG4-1) with spleen cells isolated from a BALB/c mouse immunized with OA-γ-globulin. The 6B1A3 mAb belongs to the immunoglobulin G1 (κ chain) isotype. Both competitive direct and indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) were established for characterization of the antibody. The concentrations causing 50% inhibition of binding of OA-horseradish peroxidase to the antibody by OA were calculated to be 0.077 ng/mL in the cdELISA. A rapid and sensitive mAb-based gold nanoparticle immunochromatographic strip was also established. This proposed strip has a detection limit of 5 ng/mL for OA and can be finished in 10 min. Extensive analyses of 20 seafood samples with ELISA revealed that 10 were slightly contaminated with OA, with a mean concentration of 0.892 ng/g. Analysis of OA in shellfish samples showed that data acquired by the immunochromatographic strip agreed well with those acquired by the ELISA. The mAb-based ELISA and immunochromatographic strip assay developed in this study have adequate sensitivity and accuracy for rapid screening of OA in shellfish samples.
In order to advance the application of antimicrobial peptides in aquaculture, transgenic zebrafish expressing the antimicrobial peptide, epinecidin-1, were developed and are reported on here. First, we cloned the zebrafish mylz2 promoter... more
In order to advance the application of antimicrobial peptides in aquaculture, transgenic zebrafish expressing the antimicrobial peptide, epinecidin-1, were developed and are reported on here. First, we cloned the zebrafish mylz2 promoter for this purpose. To characterize the activity of the mylz2 promoter, various fragments of it were analyzed using a firefly luciferase transient expression assay, in which maximum promoter activity was found with a 2.5-kb fragment. In addition, the 2.5-kb fragment also expressed considerable red fluorescent proteins in skeletal muscles of transgenic zebrafish. Second, in order to improve the translation efficiency of the Tol2 transposase, we constructed untranslated regions (UTRs) of zebrafish ba1 globin flanked by a transposase. A transient embryonic excision assay (TEEA) and in vivo fluorescent observations showed high transposition efficiency during embryonic development. After optimization of the promoter and transgene efficiencies, transgenic zebrafish with the Epi-1/DsRed plasmid (pTLR-m2.5 K-K.Epinecidin-1/DsRed vector) were developed, and expressions of Epi-1/DsRed in muscles and blood were demonstrated by immunohistochemical staining techniques. Moreover, we also found that the Epi-1/DsRed gene was efficiently and significantly expressed in vivo against Vibrio vulnificus and Streptococcus agalactiae after injecting the bacteria and determining bacterial counts. A gene expression study using real-time RT-PCR revealed that Epi-1/DsRed itself induced endogenous MyD88 expression in vivo. After Epi-1/DsRed transgenic zebrafish were infected with V. vulnificus 204, interleukin (IL)-10, IL-22, IL-26, lysozyme, toll-like receptor (TLR)1, TLR3, TLR4a, MyD88, and nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB activating protein-like were upregulated, but IL-1beta and tumor necrosis factor-alpha were downregulated at 12h post-infection; IL-21, complement component c3b, and NF-kappaB activating protein-like were downregulated, but MyD88 was upregulated at 24h post-infection. These results suggest that using epinecidin-1 as a transgene in zebrafish can effectively inhibit bacterial growth for up to 24h after infection.

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