Is Neurodegenerative Disease a Long-Latency Response to Early-Life Genotoxin Exposure?

Glen E. Kisby and Peter S. Spencer
Additional contact information
Glen E. Kisby: Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Western University of Health Sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific Northwest, Lebanon, OR 97355, USA
Peter S. Spencer: Global Health Center, Center for Research on Occupational & Environmental Toxicology, and School of Medicine Department of Neurology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA

IJERPH, 2011, vol. 8, issue 10, 1-33

Abstract: Western Pacific amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and parkinsonism-dementia complex, a disappearing neurodegenerative disease linked to use of the neurotoxic cycad plant for food and/or medicine, is intensively studied because the neuropathology (tauopathy) is similar to that of Alzheimer’s disease. Cycads contain neurotoxic and genotoxic principles, notably cycasin and methylazoxymethanol, the latter sharing chemical relations with nitrosamines, which are derived from nitrates and nitrites in preserved meats and fertilizers, and also used in the rubber and leather industries. This review includes new data that influence understanding of the neurobiological actions of cycad and related genotoxins and the putative mechanisms by which they might trigger neurodegenerative disease.

Keywords: Guam; cycad; methylazoxymethanol (MAM); b- N -methylamino-L-alanine (L-BMAA); DNA damage; tauopathy; neurodegenerative disease; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); parkinsonism-dementia; nitrosamines; formaldehyde (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/8/10/3889/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/8/10/3889/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:8:y:2011:i:10:p:3889-3921:d:14203

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().