[5] Ochratoxin A is potentially carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B), and has been shown to be weakly mutagenic, possibly by induction of oxidative DNA damage.

[11] The molecular mechanism of ochratoxin A carcinogenicity has been under debate due to conflicting literature, however this mycotoxin has been proposed to play a major role in reducing antioxidant defenses.

[13] The affinity for the hippocampus could be relevant to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease, and subchronic administration to rodents induces hippocampal neurodegeneration.

Ochratoxin causes acute depletion of striatal dopamine, which constitutes the bed of Parkinson's disease, but it did not cause cell death in any of brain regions examined.

[1] Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN), a slowly progressive renal disease, appeared in the middle of the 20th century, highly localized around the Danube, but only hitting certain households.

Such proximal tubule nephropathies can be induced by aluminium (e.g. in antiperspirants), antibiotics (vancomycin, aminosides), tenofovir (for AIDS), and cisplatin[citation needed].

[17] In BEN, renal biopsy shows acellular interstitial fibrosis, tubular atrophy, and karyomegaly in proximal convoluted tubules.

[21] Ochratoxin possibly is not the cause of this nephropathy, and many authors are in favor of aristolochic acid, that is contained in a plant: birthwort (Aristolochia clematitis).

Nevertheless, although many of the pieces of scientific evidence are lacking and/or need serious re-evaluation, it remains that ochratoxin, in pigs, demonstrates direct correlation between exposure and onset and progression of nephropathy.

However, it would be easy to go into excessive levels (Diet 1+), just by eating 200 g of pig kidney and 200 g of peanuts, which would lead to a total of nearly 462 ng of ochratoxin.

[31] Although no significant health risk is expected after dermal contact in agricultural or residential environments, skin exposure to ochratoxin A should nevertheless be limited.

In 1975, Woolf et al.[32] proposed that the inherited disorder phenylketonuria protects against ochratoxin A poisoning through the production of high levels of phenylalanine.