Abstract
Cyanobacteria produce a wide range of structurally diverse cyanotoxins and bioactive cyanopeptides in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial ecosystems. The health significance of these metabolites, which include genotoxic- and neurotoxic agents, is confirmed by continued associations between the occurrence of animal and human acute toxic events and, in the long term, by associations between cyanobacteria and neurodegenerative diseases. One of the implicated mechanisms includes a misincorporation of cyanobacterial non-proteogenic amino acids leading to mistranslation and protein misfolding. A better understanding of the interaction between the cyanopeptide metabolism and the nervous system will be crucial to target or to prevent pathogenic response.