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By Nathan Yeo,
The Dartmouth Staff
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
A toxin present in blue-green algae and consumed by sealife may be a cause of
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease — and
other neurological diseases in humans who ingest contaminated water or seafood,
according to research conducted by Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
neurologist Elijah Stommel.
Stommel’s research, which began in 2000, is still ongoing and was recently
featured in Discover Magazine.
Beta-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), a compound found in cyanobacteria such as
blue-green algae, has been thought to cause neurological defects since the
1960s, when foods containing the compound were linked to a neurological disease
outbreak in Guam.
Stommel and students at Dartmouth Medical School plotted the addresses of about
800 ALS patients onto a computer map of northern New England and found that they
were heavily concentrated around lakes and other bodies of water. The data
indicate that ALS is 2.5 times more common in patients living within half a mile
of bodies of water, Stommel said.
The subjects were the most densely clustered around Mascoma Lake, which is
located in nearby Enfield, N.H. Between 2000 and 2006, nine patients living near
the lake were diagnosed with ALS, according to a Dec.2009 paper published by
Stommel and other DHMC researchers in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Such
prevalence is 10 to 25 times the normal ALS rate of two cases per 100,000 people
per year.
Cyanobacteria, which thrive in ponds and lakes, may be increasing in volume due
to eutrophication, caused by runoff from phosphates and nitrates found in lawn
fertilizers, according to Stommel.
Stommel said BMAA may be linked to a number of neurological diseases including
ALS, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease by accumulating in the brain,
incorporating itself into brain tissue proteins and eventually causing them to
collapse.
“If you put an amino acid into a protein that’s not going to be there
[naturally], it can have major effects,” he said.
Stommel said people could potentially be ingesting BMAA in a number of different
ways.
“We don’t really know [the exact cause], but I assume its either through
contamination of well water, aerosolization or possibly through eating fish,”
Stommel said. “If you are swimming in the water, you could ingest some of the
water that way. It may be getting into the food chain. It’s very hard to know.”
Stommel said he plans to conduct further research with epidemiologists to
examine common lifestyle factors amongst his patients. Stommel will distribute
questionnaires to his patients to collect information about their diets, how
much time they spend in the water and how long they have lived in the area.
“A lot of people move around a lot, so it’s quite a difficult question to
answer,” Stommel said.
Stommel said he does not currently have enough information to declare certain
types of seafood unsafe for consumption.
“I think it’s conjecture at this point, but it’s certainly something we’re
looking into,” he said. “If you know that the fish has come from somewhere with
a history of cyanobacterial blooms, I personally don’t think I would eat the
fish, but I am not telling other people not to because I don’t really know for
sure.”
Stommel said he and other researchers will continue to investigate the subject,
beginning by analyzing brain samples of ALS patients to see if they have
elevated levels of BMAA.
Initial studies from the University of Miami have found high levels of BMAA in
brain samples from ALS patients, according to a May 2011 Discover Magazine
article profiling Stommel’s research and published online on June 21.
Stommel said the growing abundance of cyanobacteria around the world could put
people everywhere at risk if high levels of BMAA do cause neurological damage.
“I think it’s a worldwide problem,” he said. “Cyanobacteria are found everywhere
"When no one is around, who are you? You are yourself. The person you are when you're alone should remain constant to the person you are when others are around." Joseph Torres
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