RT Journal
A1 Stephenson J
T1 ALs and neurotoxins
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 2010
FD June 16
VO 303
IS 23
SP 2346
OP 2346
DO 10.1001/jama.2010.798
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2010.798
AB 
Previously, researchers proposed that a neurotoxin called β-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), produced by cyanobacteria in the roots of certain plants, accumulated in the food chain and caused the very high incidence of an illness similar to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that occurred in the Chamorro people in Guam in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Studies in animals and cultured cells, as well as studies that found BMAA in brain tissue of some patients with Alzheimer disease or ALS, also implicated BMAA as a potential factor in neurodegenerative disease.