A Review of Cardiovascular Toxicity of Microcystins

Abstract

The mortality rate of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in China is on the rise. The increasing burden of CVD in China has become a major public health problem. Cyanobacterial blooms have been recently considered a global environmental concern. Microcystins (MCs) are the secondary products of cyanobacteria metabolism and the most harmful cyanotoxin found in water bodies. Recent studies provide strong evidence of positive associations between MC exposure and cardiotoxicity, representing a threat to human cardiovascular health. This review focuses on the effects of MCs on the cardiovascular system and provides some evidence that CVD could be induced by MCs. We summarized the current knowledge of the cardiovascular toxicity of MCs, with regard to direct cardiovascular toxicity and indirect cardiovascular toxicity. Toxicity of MCs is mainly governed by the increasing level of reactive oxygen species (ROS), oxidative stress in mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum, the inhibition activities of serine/threonine protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) and 2A (PP2A) and the destruction of cytoskeletons, which finally induce the occurrence of CVD. To protect human health from the threat of MCs, this paper also puts forward some directions for further research.

A Mini Review on Microcystins and Bacterial Degradation

“…Further, at or above the no-observed adverse effect level (NOAEL), MC-LR exposure worsened the pathological phenotype towards nonalcoholic steatohepatitis disease (NASH) or fibrosis [50]. It is worth knowing that other organs including respiratory, renal, cardiovascular, intestinal, central nervous, and reproductive system may also be affected due to the organic anion transporting polypeptides (OATPs) which actively transport MCs into cells [35,51]. The chronic low-dose of MC-LR exposure resulted to alveolar collapse, lung cell apoptosis and breach of cell junction integrity.…”

“…1-7 signify seven amino acid residues. X and Z in positions two and four are highly variable L-amino acids (reproduced from[35], 2019, MDPI).…”

The Association between Trimethylamine N-Oxide and Its Predecessors Choline, L-Carnitine, and Betaine with Coronary Artery Disease and Artery Stenosis

“…Traditionally, CAD is strongly associated with age, obesity, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia. Even sufficient attention was devoted to those traditional risk factors, prevalence rate for CAD still increased remarkably by 14.7% from 1990 to 2016 [2][3][4]. Particularly, some individuals with severe artery stenosis (≥90% in coronary arteries) do not exhibit obvious clinical symptom, which may hinder the diagnosis and prevention of CAD.…”

Effects of Chronic Exposure to Microcystin-LR on Kidney in Mice

“…Cyanobacterial blooms are an increasing problem worldwide and increasingly attract public attention, since microcystins (MCs) produced by them can cause a series of water quality problems and pose hazards to human and animal health [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. MCs are a family of cyclic heptapeptide endotoxins.…”