Plant Toxins and Human Disease

The Interactions of Human Neutrophils with Shiga Toxins and Related Plant Toxins: Danger or Safety?

Shiga toxins and ricin are well characterized similar toxins belonging to quite different biological kingdoms. Plant and bacteria have evolved the ability to produce these powerful toxins in parallel, while humans have evolved a defense system that recognizes molecular patterns common to foreign molecules through specific receptors expressed on the surface of the main actors of innate immunity,...

Natural Toxins in Plant Foodstuffs

Since food plants are mixtures of large numbers of chemical compounds and since any substance is toxic in a high enough dose, it is not surprising that natural food plants are toxic under certain conditions. Toxicity from common natural foods has resulted from long-term consumption of a single food item or from short periods of consumption of foods containing unusually high levels of a toxic su...

Inhibiting Microbial Toxins Using Plant-Derived Compounds and Plant Extracts

Many pathogenic bacteria and fungi produce potentially lethal toxins that cause cytotoxicity or impaired cellular function either at the site of colonization or other locations in the body through receptor-mediated interactions. Various factors, including biotic and abiotic environments, competing microbes, and chemical cues affect toxin expression in these pathogens. Recent work suggests that ...

Introduction to the Toxins Special Issue on Plant Toxins

Uraemic toxins and cardiovascular disease.

When renal failure develops, uraemic retention solutes are retained which are normally excreted by the healthy kidneys. If these retention solutes exert biochemicalu biological activity, they are called uraemic toxins. According to their physico-chemical characteristics, they can be subdivided into [1]: (i) small water-soluble compounds (-500 Da, prototype urea); (ii) the larger so-called middl...