Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0004134 (ataxia)
 15,886 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids are among the most significant plant chemicals causing disease in animals and humans. After absorption from the gut, the compounds are converted to electrophilic pyrroles in the liver which, apart from causing damage to this organ, may escape to cause injury to extraheptic tissues such as the lungs, heart, and kidneys. A group of compounds more recently found to be associated with neurotoxicity are various polyhydroxyalkaloids which are able to interfere with polysaccharide metabolism. They are able to inhibit lysosomal monosaccharidases by virtue of their structural resemblance to the transition state of particular sugar molecules. The resulting lysosomal storage diseases have pathology identical to that of the respective congenital and heritable lysosomal storage diseases which occur in animals and humans. Consumption of cycad plants by cattle may cause a neurotoxicity characterised mainly by a posterior sensory ataxia. In recent years, cycads are considered to be a risk factor for a spectrum of progressive neuro degenerative diseases of humans in the Western Pacific region. The known toxins in the plant are the methylazoxymethanol glycosides which are hepatotoxic and carcinogenic, and the neurotoxic non-protein amino acid beta-methylaminoalanine. A plant carcinogen which can be of great abundance in the nutritional environment is the illudine norsesquiterpene glucoside ptaquiloside which is found in bracken fern. This is the only plant carcinogen which causes natural outbreaks of bladder and/or intestinal cancer in livestock. Many legumes contain phytooestrogens, notably isoflavones. Consumption of these compounds at high levels by sheep can cause extensive lesions of the genitalia of females and castrated males.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Directly toxic effects of plant chemicals which may occur in human and animal foods. 758 21

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are natural phytotoxins found in thousands of plant species around the world. They are probably the most common poisonous plants affecting livestock, wildlife and humans. The disease occurs almost entirely as a consequence of chronic poisoning and in general ends fatally. In the present study, PAs poisoning was investigated in a gazelle with hepatic encephalopathy associated with severe neurologic signs. The main clinical signs included head pressing, progressive depression and weakness, ataxia and reluctance to move, turn the head to the left and to paddle, hyperesthesia and decreased food intake. Histopathological examination revealed major lesions in the liver consisting of severe hepatocyte megalocytosis and hypertrophy with nuclei enlargement, mild bile duct hyperplasia, centriacinar fatty change and hepatocellular necrosis. Moreover, pulmonary congestion and edema with endothelium necrosis and alveolar septa thickening, severe congestion in vessels of the brain and meninges, and myocardial necrosis were observed.
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PMID:The first report of pyrrolizidine alkaloid poisoning in a gazelle (Gazella Subgutturosa) - histopathologic diagnosis. 2865 45