The development of a technique combining solid-phase microextraction (SPME) with microbore high-performance liquid chromatography (micro-HPLC)-tandem quadrupole time-of-flight (QTOF) mass spectrometry (MS) for determination of dissolved microcystins in water is reported. Several important parameters affecting the efficiency of SPME extraction of microcystins are investigated. A microbore C18 co...

the presence of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) is a significant indicator of water quality,having in mind that several genera have the quality of producing cyanotoxins, which are harmful to animals,plants and humans. seven lakes in vojvodina (republic of serbia) were examined in may and september 2007 for cyanobacterial presence and cyanotoxins content, chl a concentration and index of phosph...

Portuguese freshwater reservoirs are important socio-economic resources, namely for recreational use. National legislation concerning bathing waters does not include mandatory levels or guidelines for cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins. This is an issue of concern since cyanotoxin-based evidence is insufficient to change the law, and the collection of scientific evidence has been hampered by the lac...

Fish consumption is a potential route of human exposure to the hepatotoxic microcystins, especially in lakes and reservoirs that routinely experience significant toxic Microcystis blooms. Understanding the rates of uptake and elimination for microcystins as well as the transfer efficiency into tissues of consumers are important for determining the potential for microcystins to be transferred up...

The summer-autumn dominance of the toxic cyanobacterium Planktothrix agardhii was described in the lowland polymictic Siemianówka Dam Reservoir (SDR) in 2010 and 2011. The study was conducted at a station located in the deepest part of the reservoir. The species composition of phytoplankton was very similar at the four depths analyzed. Microcystins were continually present in the cyanobacterial...

In this study we investigated the presence of toxin-producing cyanobacterial contaminants in food supplements manufactured from blooms of the non-toxic freshwater cyanobacterium Aphanizomenon flos-aquae. Previous reports investigating the contamination of health food supplements with toxin-producing cyanobacteria have used chemical and or biochemical methods such as HPLC, ELISA and protein phos...

Toxic blooms of cyanobacteria are ubiquitous in both freshwater and brackish water sources throughout the world. One class of cyanobacterial toxins, called microcystins, is cyclic peptides. In addition to ingestion and dermal, inhalation is a likely route of human exposure. A significant increase in reporting of minor symptoms, particularly respiratory symptoms was associated with exposure to h...

Besides the most prominent peptide toxin, microcystin, the cyanobacteria Microcystis spp. have been shown to produce a large variety of other bioactive oligopeptides. We investigated for the first time the oligopeptide diversity within a natural Microcystis population by analyzing single colonies directly with matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-T...

A monoclonal antibody (clone AD4G2) was generated against a common part of microcystins and nodularins, the unusual amino acid Adda [(2S,3S,8S,9S)-3-amino-9-methoxy-2,6,8-trimethyl-10-phenyldeca-4E,6E-dienoic acid]. A direct competitive ELISA based on this antibody was developed and the cross-reactivity pattern was measured. Different toxins showed a very similar response. The assay provides th...