ArticleToxins2015
Detection of cyanotoxins, β-N-methylamino-L-alanine and microcystins, from a lake surrounded by cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Article in Toxins, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Urbanization, air pollution, and water pollution: Identification of potential environmental risk factors associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis using systematic reviews.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Article
- Neurodegenerative diseases and environmental risk factors: an overview of the available scientific evidence.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Review
- Airborne Cyanobacterial Toxins and Their Links to Neurodegenerative Diseases.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Life Course Exposure to Cyanobacteria and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Survival.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- TDP-43 and Alzheimer's Disease Pathology in the Brain of a Harbor Porpoise Exposed to the Cyanobacterial Toxin BMAA.Toxins · 2024Article
- Presymptomatic geographical distribution of ALS patients suggests the involvement of environmental factors in the disease pathogenesis.Journal of neurology · 2023Article
- Validation of a Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR) Assay to Detect Cyanobacterial 16S rDNA in Human Lung Tissue.Toxics · 2023Article
- Raw Water and ALS: A Unifying Hypothesis for the Environmental Agents Involved in ALS.Annals of neurosciences · 2023Review
- Review
- Detection of β-N-methylamino-l-alanine in postmortem olfactory bulbs of Alzheimer's disease patients using UHPLC-MS/MS: An autopsy case-series study.Toxicology reports · 2023Article
- Environmental Neurotoxin β-Microorganisms · 2022Review
- Motor dysfunction iniScience · 2022Article
- Perceived Intensification in Harmful Algal Blooms Is a Wave of Cumulative Threat to the Aquatic Ecosystems.Biology · 2022Review
- Cyanotoxins and the Nervous System.Toxins · 2021Review
- Is Exposure to BMAA a Risk Factor for Neurodegenerative Diseases? A Response to a Critical Review of the BMAA Hypothesis.Neurotoxicity research · 2021Article
- Biocrust-Produced Cyanotoxins Are Found Vertically in the Desert Soil Profile.Neurotoxicity research · 2021Article
- BMAA and MCLR Interact to Modulate Behavior and Exacerbate Molecular Changes Related to Neurodegeneration in Larval Zebrafish.Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
A cluster of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has been previously described to border Lake Mascoma in Enfield, NH, with an incidence of ALS approximating 25 times expected. We hypothesize a possible association with cyanobacterial blooms that can produce β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), a neurotoxic amino acid implicated as a possible cause of ALS/PDC in Guam. Muscle, liver, and brain tissue samples from a Lake Mascoma carp, as well as filtered aerosol samples, were analyzed for microcystins (MC), free and protein-bound BMAA, and the BMAA isomers 2,4-diaminobutyric acid (DAB) and N-(2-aminoethyl)glycine (AEG). In carp brain, BMAA and DAB concentrations were 0.043 μg/g ± 0.02 SD and 0.01 μg/g ± 0.002 SD respectively. In carp liver and muscle, the BMAA concentrations were 1.28 μg/g and 1.27 μg/g respectively, and DAB was not detected. BMAA was detected in the air filters, as were the isomers DAB and AEG. These results demonstrate that a putative cause for ALS, BMAA, exists in an environment that has a documented cluster of ALS. Although cause and effect have not been demonstrated, our observations and measurements strengthen the association.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.