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Toxins Jul 2020Oleander is a spontaneous shrub widely occurring in Mediterranean regions. Poisoning is sporadically reported in livestock, mainly due to the ingestion of leaves...
Oleander is a spontaneous shrub widely occurring in Mediterranean regions. Poisoning is sporadically reported in livestock, mainly due to the ingestion of leaves containing toxic cardiac glycosides (primarily oleandrin). In this study, 50 lactating Fleckvieh cows were affected after being offered a diet containing dry oleander pruning wastes accidentally mixed with fodder. Clinical examination, electrocardiogram, and blood sampling were conducted. Dead animals were necropsied, and heart, liver, kidney, spleen, and intestine were submitted to histological investigation. Oleandrin detection was performed through ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry in blood, serum, liver, heart, milk, and cheese samples. Severe depression, anorexia, ruminal atony, diarrhea, serous nasal discharge, tachycardia, and irregular heartbeat were the most common clinical signs. The first animal died within 48 h, and a total of 13 cows died in 4 days. Disseminated hyperemia and hemorrhages, multifocal coagulative necrosis of the cardiac muscle fibers, and severe and diffuse enteritis were suggestive of oleander poisoning. The diagnosis was confirmed by the presence of oleandrin in serum, liver, heart, milk, and cheese. Our results confirm the high toxicity of oleander in cattle and report for the first time the transfer into milk and dairy products, suggesting a potential risk for the consumers.
Topics: Animal Feed; Animals; Cardenolides; Cattle; Cattle Diseases; Cheese; Disease Outbreaks; Female; Food Safety; Italy; Liver; Milk; Myocardium; Nerium; Plant Poisoning
PubMed: 32722138
DOI: 10.3390/toxins12080471 -
British Medical Journal (Clinical...
Topics: Adult; Female; Humans; Male; Plant Poisoning; Plants, Toxic; Seizures; Vomiting
PubMed: 3121119
DOI: 10.1136/bmj.295.6613.1657 -
Biological Research Mar 2019Fava beans (FBs) have long been used as food, and their principal disadvantage is derived from their haemotoxicity. We hypothesized that FB ingestion alters the...
BACKGROUND
Fava beans (FBs) have long been used as food, and their principal disadvantage is derived from their haemotoxicity. We hypothesized that FB ingestion alters the intestinal gene expression pattern, thereby inducing an immune response.
RESULTS
In-depth sequence analysis identified 769 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with the intestine in FB-treated DBA/1 mouse intestines. The identified genes were shown to be associated with biological processes (such as response to stimulus and immune system processes), human disease pathways (such as infectious diseases, endocrine and metabolic diseases, and immune diseases), and organismal system pathways (such as the digestive system, endocrine system, environmental adaptation, and immune system). Moreover, plasma total immunoglobulin E (IgE), histamine, interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-13 levels were significantly increased when the mice were treated with FBs.
CONCLUSIONS
These results demonstrated that FBs affect the intestinal immune response and IgE and cytokine secretion in DBA/1 mice.
Topics: Animals; Favism; Gene Expression Profiling; Immunity, Humoral; Intestinal Mucosa; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred DBA; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Signal Transduction; Vicia faba
PubMed: 30823938
DOI: 10.1186/s40659-019-0216-9 -
British Medical Journal (Clinical...
Topics: Attitude of Health Personnel; Humans; Plant Poisoning; Plants, Medicinal; South Africa
PubMed: 3121107
DOI: 10.1136/bmj.295.6613.1650 -
Archives of Disease in Childhood Oct 1953
Topics: Favism; Humans; London
PubMed: 13105385
DOI: 10.1136/adc.28.141.369 -
Postgraduate Medical Journal Feb 1971
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Colchicine; Colchicum; Female; Humans; Plant Poisoning; Plants, Medicinal; Suicide
PubMed: 5576148
DOI: 10.1136/pgmj.47.544.129 -
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Mar 2016Bufadienolide-type cardiac glycosides have a worldwide distribution and are mainly synthesized by plants, but there are also animal sources. In South Africa, members of...
Bufadienolide-type cardiac glycosides have a worldwide distribution and are mainly synthesized by plants, but there are also animal sources. In South Africa, members of three genera of the Crassulaceae (Cotyledon, Tylecodon and Kalanchoe) cause a unique chronic form of cardiac glycoside poisoning, predominantly in small stock. This paretic/paralytic condition is referred to as "krimpsiekte", cotyledonosis or "nenta". "Krimpsiekte" is a plant poisoning only reported from South Africa and is regarded as the most important plant poisoning of small stock in the semi-arid Little Karoo and southern fringes of the Great Karoo. The toxicosis is caused by cumulative bufadienolides which have neurotoxic properties. Four types of cumulative neurotoxic bufadienolides, namely cotyledoside, and the tyledosides, orbicusides and lanceotoxins, have been isolated. Based on the structure activity relationships and certain toxicokinetic parameters possible reasons for their accumulation are presented. Consumption of edible tissues from animals that have ingested these plants poses a potential risk to humans.
Topics: Bufanolides; Crassulaceae; Glycosides; Humans; Neurotoxicity Syndromes; Plants, Toxic; South Africa
PubMed: 27102163
DOI: 10.3390/molecules21030348 -
Toxicology Letters Oct 2021The ingestion of Nerium oleander and Thevetia peruviana are common causes for poisoning in Southeast Asia. All parts of the oleander shrub contain cardiac glycosides of...
The ingestion of Nerium oleander and Thevetia peruviana are common causes for poisoning in Southeast Asia. All parts of the oleander shrub contain cardiac glycosides of the cardenolide type. These glycosides act via inhibition of a Na/K-ATPase which might cause severe arrhythmia and subsequent death in oleander-poisoned patients. The current study uses human induced pluripotent stem cells derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CM) in a microelectrode array (MEA) system to assess the cardiac effects of neriifolin, oleandrin, digitoxigenin, peruvoside and thevetin A from the oleander plant. Digoxin was used as established reference compound. All tested compounds showed a corrected field potential duration (FPDc) shortening and was the lowest for 600 nM digitoxigenin with -36.9 ± 1.2 %. Next to the dose-dependent pro-arrhythmic potential, a complete beat arrest of the spontaneously beating hiPSC-CM was observed at a concentration of 300 nM for neriifolin, 600 nM for oleandrin and 1000 nM for digitoxigenin and peruvoside. Thevetin A did not cause arrhythmia up to a final concentration of 1000 nM. Thus, it was possible to establish a cardiac effect rank order of the tested substances: neriifolin > oleandrin > digitoxigenin = peruvoside > digoxin > thevetin A.
Topics: Cardenolides; Cardiac Glycosides; Cells, Cultured; Humans; Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells; Myocytes, Cardiac; Nerium; Plant Poisoning
PubMed: 34371141
DOI: 10.1016/j.toxlet.2021.07.020 -
Thorax Aug 1975An African youth who had died from primary pulmonary hypertension was suspected of having ingested a herbal remedy containing the seeds of the local plant Crotalaria...
An African youth who had died from primary pulmonary hypertension was suspected of having ingested a herbal remedy containing the seeds of the local plant Crotalaria laburnoides. Consequently powdered seeds of this plant were fed to 20 Wistar albino rats for 60 dyas to see if this would induce ventricular hypertrophy and associated hypertensive pulmonary vascular disease. At the end of the experimental period right ventricular hypertrophy, medial hypertrophy of the pulmonary trunk and 'muscular pulmonary arteries', and muscularization of the pulmonary arterioles had developed in a proportion of the test animals. These are the morbid anatomical features pathognomonic of a raised pulmonary arterial pressure and show that the seeds of Crotalaria laburnoides contain an agent capable of inducing pulmonary hypertension in rats. This study suggests the value of seeking a history of ingestion of herbal remedies and drugs in cases of unexplained pulmonary hypertension in man.
Topics: Animals; Aorta; Cardiomegaly; Hypertension, Pulmonary; Plant Poisoning; Plants, Medicinal; Pulmonary Artery; Rats; Tanzania; Vascular Diseases
PubMed: 126502
DOI: 10.1136/thx.30.4.399 -
International Journal of Molecular... Dec 2022Favism uniquely arises from a genetic defect of the Glucose-6 Phosphate Dehydrogenase (G6PD) enzyme and results in a severe reduction of erythrocytes' (RBCs) reducing...
Favism uniquely arises from a genetic defect of the Glucose-6 Phosphate Dehydrogenase (G6PD) enzyme and results in a severe reduction of erythrocytes' (RBCs) reducing power that impairs the cells' ability to respond to oxidative stresses. After exposure to fava beans or a few other drugs, the patients experience acute hemolytic anemia due to RBCs' lysis both intra and extra-vascularly. In the present paper, we compared selected biochemical, biophysical, and ultra-morphological properties of normal RBCs and cells from favism patients measured along cellular aging. Along the aging path, the cells' characteristics change, and their structural and functional properties degrade for both samples, but with different patterns and effectors that have been characterized in biophysical and biochemical terms. In particular, the analysis revealed distinct metabolic regulation in G6DP-deficient cells that determines important peculiarities in the cell properties during aging. Remarkably, the initial higher fragility and occurrence of structural/morphological alterations of favism cells develop, with longer aging times, into a stronger resistance to external stresses and higher general resilience. This surprisingly higher endurance against cell aging has been related to a special mechanism of metabolic regulation that permits lower energy consumption in environmental stress conditions. Our results provided a direct and coherent link between the RBCs' metabolic regulation and the cell properties that would not have been possible to establish without an investigation performed during aging. The consequences of this new knowledge, in particular, can be discussed in a more general context, such as understanding the role of the present findings in determining the characteristics of the favism pathology as a whole.
Topics: Humans; Favism; Erythrocytes; Anemia, Hemolytic; Vicia faba; Cellular Senescence; Glucosephosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency
PubMed: 36614084
DOI: 10.3390/ijms24010637