See Below
When: 7:00 pm, Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Where: Orca Books, 509 East 4th Avenue, Olympia (Phone 360.352.0123)
Our topic for March is From Zebrafish to Sea Lions to Humans: Common Effects of Seafood Toxin Exposure.
The neurotoxic amino acid, domoic acid (DA), is naturally produced by marine phytoplankton and presents a significant threat to the health of marine mammals, seabirds and humans via transfer of the toxin through the foodweb. In humans, acute exposure causes a neurotoxic illness known as amnesic shellfish poisoning characterized by seizures, memory loss, coma and death. Regular monitoring for high DA levels in edible shellfish tissues has been effective in protecting human consumers from acute DA exposure. However, chronic low-level DA exposure remains a concern, particularly in coastal and tribal communities that subsistence harvest shellfish known to contain low levels of the toxin. Domoic acid exposure via consumption of planktivorous fish also has a profound health impact on California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) affecting hundreds of animals yearly.
Due to increasing algal toxin exposure threats globally, there is a critical need for reliable diagnostic tests for assessing chronic DA exposure in humans and wildlife. Our research team has discovered a novel DA-specific antibody response that is a signature of chronic low-level exposure identified initially in a zebrafish exposure model and confirmed in naturally exposed wild sea lions. Additionally, we found that chronic exposure in zebrafish caused increased neurologic sensitivity to DA, revealing that repetitive exposure to DA (at levels well below the threshold for acute behavioral toxicity) has underlying neurotoxic consequences. The discovery that chronic exposure to low levels of a small, water-soluble single amino acid triggers a detectable antibody response is surprising and has profound implications for the development of diagnostic tests for exposure to other pervasive environmental toxins.
Our speaker this month is Kathi Lefebvre, Ph.D., Research Biologist at NOAA Fisheries, Northwest Fisheries Science Center (Seattle, Washington).
April Topic:
Artificial Intelligence and Psychology: More Human than a Human?
by
David D. Luxton, Ph.D
National Center for Telehealth & Technology
and
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
University of Washington School of Medicine