A disease that destroys brain cells in horses, moldy corn poisoning or equine leukoencephalomalacia (ELEM), is currently a death sentence. But promising new research findings may someday improve the odds.

ELEM is caused by corn contaminated with the fumonisin-producing fungus, Fusarium moniliforme. The toxin is insidious—only a small amount makes horses sick. While the animals appear healthy, they suffer irreversible damage.

Scientists at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), in collaboration with Emory University, found that the fungi’s toxin interrupts the way a horse’s liver, kidney, and lungs make a special kind of fat known as sphingolipid. The toxin also causes an inappropriate fat intermediate (sphinganine) to accumulate and other necessary fats to be depleted.

The ARS researchers are based at the agency’s Richard B. Russell Agricultural Research Center in Athens, Ga. They found that another fungus, Isaria sinclairii, produces a compound called ISP-I or myriocin that temporarily reduced the sphinganine accumulation in mice with no ill effects. If confirmed by other studies, the myriocin discovery might lead to treatments