Medical professionals have no way to diagnose people who become ill from ingesting western Lake Erie’s chief algal toxin or making body contact with it — but the University of Toledo Medical Center hopes to change that.
UTMC, formerly the Medical College of Ohio hospital, is working with Wayne State University and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on a scientific method to diagnose the toxin, which attacks primarily the liver.
“In this case, we’re dealing with some very interesting scientific questions that could be recognized nationally,” Frank Calzonetti, UT vice president of research, said of the cutting-edge research, which involves about two dozen experts from multiple disciplines.
The ability to diagnosis is a necessary first step to ultimately find out what — if anything — exposure to low-level algal toxins over a person’s lifetime means to public health, according to David Kennedy, a UT assistant professor of medicine, and Jason Huntley, an associate professor and bacteria specialist in UT’s medical microbiology and immunology department.
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“Water is a thing that cuts across political spectrums. Everyone needs it,” Mr. Kennedy said. “It’s unfortunate we have to measure toxins in people because they shouldn’t be there in the first place.”
Steven Haller, a UT assistant professor of medicine who specializes in kidney research, said studies won’t be limited to the liver.
One of the burning questions is whether people exposed to low-level toxins over several decades are more susceptible to liver failure, liver cancer, or other conditions, and what happens as society becomes more reliant on chemicals used to remove toxins.
The project offers “a tangible way to help” while also offering UT students a chance to be among the next generation of scientists specializing in an issue with a global reach, Mr. Kennedy said.
“No one wants to grow up in a place with such a beautiful asset [Lake Erie] but you’re afraid of it,” Mr. Kennedy said. “If you have the tools to help, you want to do that.”
Evolving science
Research gaps speak to how the science is evolving and why Congress needs to maintain funding for programs such as the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Mr. Huntley said.
Scientists are curious if prolonged, low-level microcystin exposure also might exacerbate other health problems on the rise, such as obesity, hypertension, and diabetes, he said.
“People live longer,” he said. “That’s a longer time to drink microcystin-tainted water.”
He and Mr. Kennedy said the research is more relevant now that microcystin is on the rise globally.
Climate change and poor land use are cited as probable reasons.
The toxin is carried primarily by an algae called microcystis, one of Earth’s oldest-living organisms. China’s Lake Taihu and Africa’s Lake Victoria are among the largest bodies of water carrying it outside of North America.
As recently as 1998, there were about 50 known forms of microcystin. Today, researchers have identified nearly 200.
It’s an example of how the science of algal toxins is still young.
Diagnosis lacking
While visiting UTMC in June, Elizabeth Hamlin, a CDC analytical chemist, said the federal effort to develop a protocol for diagnosing microcystin is only about a year old.
She said the CDC is further ahead on efforts to develop a methodology for diagnosing shellfish poisoning and exposure to other environmental toxins, but not by much.
“This continues to be a problem with public health in the United States,” Ms. Hamelin said, adding the CDC has “no idea” what long-term exposure to that algal toxin does to humans.
Microcystis is one of three types of cyanobacteria — commonly called harmful blue-green algae — that produce microcystin. The other two are plantothrix and dolichospermum, the latter of which used to be called anabaena.
Microcystis became western Lake Erie’s dominant algae in 1995. It also has been problematic in the Maumee River, especially near Defiance. What’s in the river, though, genetically differs from what’s in Lake Erie, Justin Chaffin, Ohio Sea Grant and Ohio State University Stone Laboratory research director, has said.
Planktothrix is Sandusky Bay’s dominant algae.
Biological nuances of toxin-carrying cells themselves are another mystery. It’s unknown why some algal cells release toxins into raw water, and others don’t.
The newest information about the 2014 Toledo water crisis appeared recently in a peer-reviewed scientific paper, which asserts the city was put into a near-impossible situation because of a virus that got into that part of the lake.
The virus caused an unusual number of cells to release their toxins into the raw lake water. That worsened an unusual situation in which strong northeasterly winds pushed the bloom deep underwater and into the city’s intake.
The role of viruses and bacteria are being studied in Mr. Huntley’s lab, which sees great potential in using lab-engineered bacteria to fight off more algal toxins inside water-treatment plants someday. It currently is studying potential uses of certain types of bacteria, Mr. Huntley said.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its latest bulletin that western Lake Erie’s 2017 bloom continues to form along the Ohio and Michigan shoreline. Toxin concentrations are currently low. Wind is expected to push part of the bloom toward the Lake Erie islands.
Contact Tom Henry at thenry@theblade.com, 419-724-6079 or via Twitter @ecowriterohio.
First Published August 6, 2017, 4:00 a.m.
