L-(+)-Abrine (L-Abrine)

Animal experiment:

Rats[2]Twenty male Wistar rats, approximately 6-7 weeks of age and weighing approximately 175-200 g upon receipt, are used. A total of 12 rats are dosed intramuscularly with L-(+)-Abrine at 0.63, 3.13, and 5 times the expected Abrin LD50 of 20 μg/kg. Although no toxin is used here, the concentration of the biomarker is increased by a factor of 4 to estimate an equivalent level of toxin, assuming that Labrine is present in rosary peas at a concentration four times greater that the toxin abrin. A total of 12 rats are dosed intramuscularly with L-(+)-Abrine: four at approximately 50 μg/kg body weight (bw), four at 250 μg/kg bw, and four at 400 μg/kg bw. Four control rats are dosed with water, which is the vehicle for all dosing experiments. Another four rats are dosed intraperitoneally with 20,000 μg/kg L-tryptophan to verify that endogenous L-tryptophan is not metabolized to L-(+)-Abrine[2].

References:

[1]. Cho H, et al. A portable and chromogenic enzyme-based sensor for detection of abrin poisoning. Biosens Bioelectron. 2014 Apr 15;54:667-73.
[2]. Johnson RC, et al. Quantification of L-abrine in human and rat urine: a biomarker for the toxin abrin. J Anal Toxicol. 2009 Mar;33(2):77-84.