Histamine poisoning can result from the ingestion of food containing unusually high levels of histamine. Fish are most commonly involved in incidents of histamine poisoning, although cheese has also been implicated on occasion. The historic involvement of tuna and mackerel in histamine poisoning led to the longtime usage of the term, scombroid fish poisoning, to describe this food-borne illness. Histamine poisoning is characterized by a short incubation period, a short duration, and symptoms resembling those associated with allergic reactions. The evidence supporting the role of histamine as the causative agent is compelling. The efficacy of antihistamine therapy, the allergic-like symptomology, and the finding of high levels of histamine in the implicated food suggest strongly that histamine is the causative agent. However, histamine ingested with spoiled fish appears to be much more toxic than histamine ingested in an aqueous solution. The presence of potentiators of histamine toxicity in the spoiled fish may account for this difference in toxicity. Several potentiators including other putrefactive amines such as putrescine and cadaverine have been identified. Pharmacologic potentiators may also exist; aminoguanidine and isoniazid are examples. The mechanism of action of these potentiators appears to be the inhibition of intestinal histamine-metabolizing enzymes. This enzyme inhibition causes a decrease in histamine detoxification in the intestinal mucosa and results in increased intestinal uptake and urinary excretion of unmetabolized histamine.

Histamine food poisoning: toxicology and clinical aspects.

The distribution and classification of histamine receptors in mammalian and avian tissues have been summarized in Tables 1-4. It is evident that histamine receptors are present on a number of morphologically distinct cell types and the proportion of cells bearing H1- and H2-receptors varies not only with the species but also with the cell source. The pharmacological receptors mediating mepyramine-sensitive histamine responses have been defined as H1-receptors. Receptors mediating mepyramine-resistant, but burimamide or metiamide-sensitive histamine responses have been classified as H2-receptors. Histamine responses mediated via H2-receptors seem to involve the adenylcyclase system resulting in elevation of intracellular cyclic-AMP level, which is susceptible to burimamide blockade but insensitive to beta-adrenergic blocking agents. This mode of action of histamine involving H2-receptors and the adenyl cyclase system has been shown to stimulate the mammalian heart; promote gastric acid secretion; inhibit antigen-induced histamine release from leucocytes and inhibit lymphocyte-mediated cytotoxicity. It can further be concluded that both H1- and H2-receptors are widely distributed throughout the animal body in the gastro-intestinal, reproductive, respiratory and cardiovascular systems, nervous system and on mast cells and blood leucocytes. In these tissues, histamine receptors play an important role in physiological, immunological and immunopathological processes. Interaction of histamine with both H1- and H2-receptors in varying proportions modulates the overall manifestation of cardiovascular and respiratory syndromes during certain immunopathological conditions (e.g. inflammation, allergy and anaphylaxis). Histamine receptors also appear to play and important role in the development of immuno-competence and immunity.

Classification and biological distribution of histamine receptor sub-types

Chapter Two – Chemistry and Structure—Activity Relationships of Drugs Acting at Histamine Receptors

It has been found possible to understand the observed relative abundances of the several different tautomers and conformers observed in the millimeter-wave jet spectroscopy of histamine by using ab...

G. N. J. Port

Papers

Conformation of histamine derivatives. 1. Application of molecular orbital calculations and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Conformation of histamine derivatives. 2. Molecular orbital calculations of preferred conformations in relation to dual receptor activity.

Conformation of histamine derivatives part 1, application of molecular orbital calculations and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy