ReviewJournal of toxicology and environmental health. Part B, Critical reviews2017
A critical review of the postulated role of the non-essential amino acid, β-N-methylamino-L-alanine, in neurodegenerative disease in humans.
Review in Journal of toxicology and environmental health. Part B, Critical reviews, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 85 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Neurodegenerative diseases and environmental risk factors: an overview of the available scientific evidence.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Review
- Life Course Exposure to Cyanobacteria and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Survival.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Decreased purine ingestion, increased molybdenum ingestion, and the decline in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis on Guam.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Environmental risk factors provoke new thinking for prevention and treatment of dementia with Lewy bodies.Heliyon · 2024Review
- Gut Symptoms, Gut Dysbiosis and Gut-Derived Toxins in ALS.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- The amyotrophic lateral sclerosis exposome: recent advances and future directions.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2023Review
- Monitoring of cyanobacterial breakthrough and accumulation by in situ phycocyanin probe system within full-scale treatment plants.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2023Article
- Raw Water and ALS: A Unifying Hypothesis for the Environmental Agents Involved in ALS.Annals of neurosciences · 2023Review
- Review
- Environmental Neurotoxin β-Microorganisms · 2022Review
- Relationship between freshwater harmful algal blooms and neurodegenerative disease incidence rates in South Korea.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2022Article
- Can foods influence the onset and progress of neurodegenerative diseases?Neural regeneration research · 2022Article
- Reporting of Freshwater Cyanobacterial Poisoning in Terrestrial Wildlife: A Systematic Map.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Review
- Determination of Cyanotoxins and Prymnesins in Water, Fish Tissue, and Other Matrices: A Review.Toxins · 2022Review
- Cyanobacteria, Cyanotoxins, and Neurodegenerative Diseases:International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Is Exposure to BMAA a Risk Factor for Neurodegenerative Diseases? A Response to a Critical Review of the BMAA Hypothesis.Neurotoxicity research · 2021Article
- Exposure to Aerosolized Algal Toxins in South Florida Increases Short- and Long-Term Health Risk inToxins · 2020Article
- Metabolite Profiling Reveals Predictive Biomarkers and the Absence of β-Methyl Amino-l-alanine in Plasma from Individuals Diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.Journal of proteome research · 2020Article
- Energy Balance as a Moderator of Neurologic Disease Risk and Progression.Neurotoxicity research · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 7 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The compound BMAA (β-N-methylamino-L-alanine) has been postulated to play a significant role in four serious neurological human diseases: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/Parkinsonism Dementia Complex (ALS/PDC) found on Guam, and ALS, Parkinsonism, and dementia that occur globally. ALS/PDC with symptoms of all three diseases first came to the attention of the scientific community during and after World War II. It was initially associated with cycad flour used for food because BMAA is a product of symbiotic cycad root-dwelling cyanobacteria. Human consumption of flying foxes that fed on cycad seeds was later suggested as a source of BMAA on Guam and a cause of ALS/PDC. Subsequently, the hypothesis was expanded to include a causative role for BMAA in other neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease (AD) through exposures attributed to proximity to freshwaters and/or consumption of seafood due to its purported production by most species of cyanobacteria. The hypothesis that BMAA is the critical factor in the genesis of these neurodegenerative diseases received considerable attention in the medical, scientific, and public arenas. This review examines the history of ALS/PDC and the BMAA-human disease hypotheses; similarities and differences between ALS/PDC and the other diseases with similar symptomologies; the relationship of ALS/PDC to other similar diseases, studies of BMAA-mediated effects in lab animals, inconsistencies and data gaps in the hypothesis; and other compounds and agents that were suggested as the cause of ALS/PDC on Guam. The review concludes that the hypothesis of a causal BMAA neurodegenerative disease relationship is not supported by existing data.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.