Advances in the Study of Harmful Microalgae and Biotoxins: In Vitro and In Vivo Approaches

A Special Issue of Toxins (ISSN 2072-6651) belonging to the section "Marine and Freshwater Toxins".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2027 | Viewed by 2188

Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Environment & Ecosystem Health Division, Centre Scientifique de Monaco, 98000 Monaco, Monaco
Interests: harmful algal blooms; aquatic toxicology; biotoxins; detection methods; seafood safety; climate change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas, Ave Instituto Politécnico Nacional S/N, Col. Playa Palo de Santa Rita, La Paz 23096, Mexico
Interests: harmful algal blooms; in vivo models; early warning systems; allelopathy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Global aquaculture industries and water management regulators have been significantly affected by harmful algal blooms (HABs) and biotoxins that ultimately tend to impact seafood safety and water quality. Climate change is favouring some blooming algal species, which are affecting new geographical areas and causing emerging challenges to regulators, industries, and public health. The scientific community needs to work in conjunction with government authorities to gain a wider understanding of harmful microalgae and create or improve monitoring programs for a common end: support industries while ensuring public health, aquatic animal welfare, and seafood security. A robust approach to characterising harmful species and biotoxins involves elucidating their toxic mechanism, for which in vitro and in vivo models are routinely employed to assess endpoints. These can include viability, threshold and lethality concentrations, as well as detection or quantification levels in accordance with recommended algal cell concentrations or established toxin limits. These approaches contribute to assessing the extent of real-world HAB events and their associated impacts.

This Special Issue welcomes research outcomes and reviews that advance the study of harmful microalgae and biotoxins through the development and use of in vivo and in vitro models, including biosensors and rapid tests. The development and advances of new models as alternatives to whole-animal experimentation are particularly encouraged.  

Disclaimer about the use of AI

All submitted manuscripts will be subjected to an initial screening using detection systems for AI-generated content. Manuscripts that are flagged as using artificial intelligence (AI) for the idea generation, writing and/or production of the entire manuscript will not be considered.

Dr. Juan José Dorantes-Aranda
Dr. Pedro Reis Costa
Dr. Christine Johanna Band-Schmidt
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxins is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • harmful microalgae
  • biotoxins
  • seafood safety
  • in vitro models
  • in vivo models
  • toxicity
  • biotechnological advances

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

12 pages, 917 KB  
Article
Developing Tools to Assess Airborne Cyanobacterial Toxins in Southwest Florida, USA
by James S. Metcalf, Manuel Aparicio, Sandra A. Banack, Jason Pim, John R. Cassani and Paul A. Cox
Toxins 2026, 18(7), 309; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins18070309 - 16 Jul 2026
Viewed by 1361
Abstract
Cyanobacterial and harmful algal blooms are common components of the waters in and around Southwest Florida and are sufficiently frequent to be of concern with respect to adverse effects on short- and long-term human and animal health. Currently, the contribution of airborne exposure [...] Read more.
Cyanobacterial and harmful algal blooms are common components of the waters in and around Southwest Florida and are sufficiently frequent to be of concern with respect to adverse effects on short- and long-term human and animal health. Currently, the contribution of airborne exposure to cyanobacterial toxins is not as advanced as for the other known human exposure routes such as consumption of contaminated water or fish. An airborne monitoring device named Airborne Detection for Algae Monitoring (ADAM) was developed to collect air samples in the proximity of algal and/or cyanobacterial blooms to examine the relationship between naturally occurring toxins in the air and those in proximal Floridian waters. Twenty-one air and water samplings were performed between July and December 2021 using a filter and impinger system for airborne components, along with a water sample from the same location. Samples were assessed for microcystins, anatoxin-a, cylindrospermopsin, saxitoxin and BMAA and isomers. Furthermore, as Karenia brevis is common in this area, brevetoxins were also assessed in air samples. Although very few large-scale cyanobacterial bloom events were observed at sampling locations, cyanobacterial and algal toxins were present in the majority of samples at low concentration. Data obtained from ADAM indicate that people may be chronically exposed to low concentrations of cyanobacterial toxins and that further assessment is required to help protect human health. Full article
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Back to TopTop