?-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA)

?-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA)

Introduction

?-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) is an organic molecule produced by cyanobacteria, the blue-green algae that live in and around aquatic environments. Cyanobacteria are consumed by fish and other biotic species. Current studies have found BMAA in seafood, suggesting that particular diets and locations could be a risk to human health (discovermagazine.com). Several epidemiological studies have shown that incidence of certain neurodegenerative diseases, appear to cluster in certain areas where the cyanobacteria are in high abundance (Pablo, et al., 2009). Brain samples of victims of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease have shown a significant concentration of BMAA compared to non-neurological disease controls (Pablo, et al., 2009). The initial large-scale interest in the BMAA/ALS connection was over fifty years ago, when endemic foci of ALS with a frequency one hundred times that in the rest of the world occurred in Guam (Bradley & Mash, 2009). These discoveries generated a systematic program to study ALS and associated diseases in the native populations of Guam (Bradley & Mash, 2009). BMAA was originally isolated from cycad seeds an integral part of their diet (Bradley & Mash, 2009).

Epidemiological studies have advanced the amount of information known about BMAA, but several aspects of this neurotoxin still remain baffling to the scientific world. The aim of this term paper is to discuss some possible mechanisms that could directly link BMAA to the cause of neurodegenerative diseases like ALS/PDC and AD. Current research suggests there is a biomagnifications effect seen in animals that base their diets on algae or the symbiotic organisms associated with cyanobacteria. These organisms are subsequently consumed by humans.

Primary Literature

Epidemiological Studies

Alzheimer Disease

Alzheimer is a progressive disease of the brain characterized by memory loss and cognitive dysfunction. Alzheimer's disease (also senile dementia of Alzheimer type)(U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2011).

The disease is characterized by loss of neurons and synaptic connections in the cerebral cortex and certain sub cortical regions. Cell death leads to atrophy of the affected areas, including the degeneration of the temporal and parietal lobes, areas of the frontal cortex and cingulated gyrus.

BMAA has been identified in studies of brain tissues of North American patients with Alzheimer's disease but not healthy controls.

BMMA has found in the frontal cortex of patients who have Alzheimer disease from Canada. Suggested that bioaccumulation of cyanobacteria may occur through different types of food chain in areas away from Guam (Cox, Banack, & Murch, 2003).

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (abbreviated ALS, also called Lou Gehrig's disease) is a degenerative disease of neuromuscular type. It occurs when some nerve cells called motor neurons gradually reduce their operation and die, causing paralysis, muscular progressive fatal prognosis (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2011)..

Many cases of ALS have been diagnosed among residents of Enfield, NH over previous years. Several of the cases existed on Lake Mascoma, a large body of water with documented blooms of cyanobacteria previously reported as part of a state monitoring program. Given the association of BMAA with ALS in other parts of the world, scientists investigated the likely association between cyanobacterial blooms in Lake ...