Investigation and monitoring of cyanobacterial hepatotoxins and neurotoxins in German and Brazilian water suppliers and lakes

• Grant number: 06/01553-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: September 01, 2006
• End date: August 31, 2008
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Pharmacy - Toxicological Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Ernani Pinto Junior
• Grantee: Ernani Pinto Junior
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas (FCF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 07/55143-0 - Cyanotoxin analyses by LC-MS: water and food safety evaluation | Jena - Alemanha, BE.PC

Abstract

The aim of this project between Brazil and Germany is to investigate the occurrence of toxic compounds in water reservoirs in both countries and to confirm the presence of hepato- and neurotoxic substances produced by cyanobacteria during blooms (i.e. microcystins, anatoxin, beta-N-methyl-L-amino-alanine - BMAA, cylindrospermopsin, PSP toxins, and new variants of these cyanobacterial toxins). There are in the laboratories of the Universities of São Paulo and Jena HPLC apparatus with selective detectors (flourescence and diode arrray) and LC-MS (ESI-MS/MS, IonTrap and Q-TOF) coupling for toxin analyses. In addition, it exists access to NMR 1H and 13C for Brazilian and German researchers allowing special experiments and analyses to get deeper insight into structures of new toxins and toxin variants, respectively. Analyses of toxins during blooms and measurements for structure elucidation of toxic compounds formed by isolated cyanobacterial strains are the tasks to fulfill during the planned project. In addition, the application of new physico-chemical methods for toxin determination will guarantee the fast, sensitive, and unambiguous detection of these harmful substances. (AU)

Filed patent(s) as a result of this research project