A new study published in the journal Nature Communications reveals that an antidote to the world’s most poisonous mushroom may have been found by scientists from Australia and China. The research examined how a medical dye already approved by the US FDA, indocyanine green, potentially works as an antidote against death cap mushroom poisoning. The study used genome-wide CRISPR screening to identify the key protein essential for the mushroom toxin α-amanitin’s toxic effect and identified indocyanine green as a possible modifier. Tests revealed that the dye acted as an antidote and helped laboratory animals survive, but the researchers emphasised that further work is needed to fully understand how the process works.
The findings are significant because mushroom poisoning is a leading cause of mortality in food poisoning worldwide. Over 90% of mushroom-related deaths are due to death cap mushrooms, which cause high rates of irreparable liver or kidney damage and mortality upon consumption. Currently, no specific antidote is available for mushroom poisoning, and previous studies have been unsuccessful in finding a reliable and organ-friendly cure for poisoning from the highly toxic Amanita phalloides species.
The researchers behind the study are from Australia’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the University of Sydney, as well as China’s Sun Yat-sen University. They believe that indocyanine green’s success in animal models shows promise for a potential antidote to be used on humans, but caution that more work is needed to understand how the medical dye inhibits α-amanitin and to assess its safety in human use.
In the meantime, the discovery of the potential antidote is a positive development in the quest to tackle mushroom poisoning worldwide, and researchers hope that further exploration of indocyanine green could provide a breakthrough in the development of an effective treatment for mushroom poisoning.
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