This and many other MOLD and sickbuilding Articles at: BioInfoBank Library

[Guest guest]

Objective: Despite the growing body of evidence showing adverse

health effects from inhalation exposure to the trichothecene-

producing mold Stachybotrys chartarum, controversy remains.

Currently, there are no reliable assays suitable for clinical

diagnosis of exposure. We hypothesized that satratoxin G (SG) -

albumin adducts may serve as biomarkers......

I find it quite hillarious they are still making the same statement

*the growing body of evidence* I think it's time they switch to *a

huge mountain of evidence* and it seems that their hypothesized

deduction " should " serve as bio-markers. Lets all ask for this test?

http://lib.bioinfo.pl/pmid:16882529

Environ Health Perspect. 2006 Aug ;114 (8):1221-6 16882529 (P,S,E,

Mycotoxin Adducts on Human Serum Albumin: Biomarkers of Exposure to

Stachybotrys chartarum.

[My paper] Iwona Yike, Anne M Distler, Assem G Ziady, Dorr G Dearborn

Department of Pediatrics and Ann Swetland Center for

Environmental Health, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland,

Ohio, USA.

Objective: Despite the growing body of evidence showing adverse

health effects from inhalation exposure to the trichothecene-

producing mold Stachybotrys chartarum, controversy remains.

Currently, there are no reliable assays suitable for clinical

diagnosis of exposure. We hypothesized that satratoxin G (SG) -

albumin adducts may serve as biomarkers of exposure to this fungus.

Design: We studied the formation of adducts of SG with serum albumin

in vitro using Western blots and mass spectrometry (MS) and searched

for similar adducts formed in vivo using human and animal serum.

Results: Samples of purified human serum albumin that had been

incubated with increasing concentrations of SG showed concentration-

dependent albumin bands in Western blots developed with anti-SG

antibodies. MS analysis found that as many as 10 toxin molecules can

be bound in vitro to one albumin molecule. The sequencing of albumin-

adduct tryptic peptides and the analysis of pronase/aminopeptidase

digests demonstrated that lysyl, cysteinyl, and histidyl residues are

involved in the formation of these adducts. Serum samples from three

patients with documented exposure to S. chartarum similarly revealed

lysine-, cysteine-, and histidine-SG adducts after exhaustive

digestion, affinity column enrichment, and MS analysis. These adducts

were also found in the sera from rats exposed to the spores of S.

chartarum in contrast to control human subjects and control animals.

Conclusions: These data document the occurrence of SG-albumin adducts

in both in vitro experiments and in vivo human and animal exposures

to S. chartarum. Relevance to clinical practice: SG-amino acid

adducts may serve as reliable dosimeter biomarkers for detection of

exposure to S. chartarum. Key words: biomarkers, satratoxin G,

Stachybotrys chartarum, trichothecenes.