Marine Biotoxins: Novel Issues about Old Compounds

A special issue of Toxins (ISSN 2072-6651). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine and Freshwater Toxins".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2009) | Viewed by 22481

Special Issue Editor

Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Via Campi 287, 41100 Modena, Italy
Interests: signal transduction; receptors; marine biotoxins; molecular mechanisms of toxicity; toxicity pathways; proteomics; biomarkers; functional methods of toxin detection; cell adhesion; cell proliferation; cell death; cell cultures
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Human poisonings due to exposures to marine biotoxins have occurred in the past and represent naturally occurring events, that have been attracting an increasing interest from the scientific community.

The last ten years, in particular, have witnessed a growing body of knowledge on the chemistry, mechanisms of action, toxicity, ecology and distribution, as well as the health impact of marine biotoxins. Research efforts have led to a deeper understanding of many aspects of marine biotoxins and their impact on living organisms, while novel issues have been recognized. For instance, “new” toxin producers have been identified, and “old” ones are being characterized using molecular probes. The number of toxins isolated, chemically characterized and/or synthesized has increased, and new groups of biotoxins have been discovered. Likewise, the methodology for toxin detection has been continuously developed, providing both instrumental and bio-molecular options. Biochemical tools have been increasingly used to clarify the mechanisms of action of toxins, and the “omic” approaches have entered the biotoxin field. The toxicology of biotoxins has been advancing, taking into consideration the real conditions of human and animal exposure to these compounds.

It’s time to gather the information available on novel issues in marine biotoxins, to critically evaluate what we know and pinpoint the many unknowns, thereby providing a broad perspective to support the scientific community in its next efforts to understand and exploit the complexity of the chemistry and biology of marine biotoxins.

Prof. Dr. Gian Paolo Rossini
Guest Editor

Keywords

  • toxin producers
  • genomics
  • toxin synthesis
  • instrumental analysis
  • biosensors
  • functional assays
  • mechanisms of action
  • transcription profiles
  • proteomics
  • metabolomics
  • combined toxicity

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Article
PP2A Inhibition Assay Using Recombinant Enzyme for Rapid Detection of Okadaic Acid and Its Analogs in Shellfish
by Tsuyoshi Ikehara, Shihoko Imamura, Atsushi Yoshino and Takeshi Yasumoto
Toxins 2010, 2(1), 195-204; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins2010195 - 25 Jan 2010
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 10346
Abstract
Okadaic acid and its analogs (OAs) responsible for diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) strongly inhibit protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) and thus are quantifiable by measuring the extent of the enzyme inhibition. In this study, we evaluated the suitability of the catalytic subunit of recombinant [...] Read more.
Okadaic acid and its analogs (OAs) responsible for diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) strongly inhibit protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) and thus are quantifiable by measuring the extent of the enzyme inhibition. In this study, we evaluated the suitability of the catalytic subunit of recombinant human PP2A (rhPP2Ac) for use in a microplate OA assay. OA, dinophysistoxin-1(DTX1), and hydrolyzate of 7-O-palmitoyl-OA strongly inhibited rhPP2Ac activity with IC50 values of 0.095, 0.104, and 0.135 nM, respectively. The limits of detection and quantitation for OA in the digestive gland of scallops and mussels were 0.0348 μg/g and 0.0611 μg/g respectively, and, when converted to the whole meat basis, are well below the regulation level proposed by EU (0.16 μg/g whole meat). A good correlation with LC-MS data was demonstrated, the correlation coefficient being 0.996 with the regression slope of 1.097. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Biotoxins: Novel Issues about Old Compounds)
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Review
Neurological Disease Rises from Ocean to Bring Model for Human Epilepsy to Life
by John S. Ramsdell
Toxins 2010, 2(7), 1646-1675; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins2071646 - 28 Jun 2010
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 11628
Abstract
Domoic acid of macroalgal origin was used for traditional and medicinal purposes in Japan and largely forgotten until its rediscovery in diatoms that poisoned 107 people after consumption of contaminated mussels. The more severely poisoned victims had seizures and/or amnesia and four died; [...] Read more.
Domoic acid of macroalgal origin was used for traditional and medicinal purposes in Japan and largely forgotten until its rediscovery in diatoms that poisoned 107 people after consumption of contaminated mussels. The more severely poisoned victims had seizures and/or amnesia and four died; however, one survivor unexpectedly developed temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) a year after the event. Nearly a decade later, several thousand sea lions have stranded on California beaches with neurological symptoms. Analysis of the animals stranded over an eight year period indicated five clusters of acute neurological poisoning; however, nearly a quarter have stranded individually outside these events with clinical signs of a chronic neurological syndrome similar to TLE. These poisonings are not limited to sea lions, which serve as readily observed sentinels for other marine animals that strand during domoic acid poisoning events, including several species of dolphin and whales. Acute domoic acid poisoning is five-times more prominent in adult female sea lions as a result of the proximity of their year-round breeding grounds to major domoic acid bloom events. The chronic neurological syndrome, on the other hand, is more prevalent in young animals, with many potentially poisoned in utero. The sea lion rookeries of the Channel Islands are at the crossroads of domoic acid producing harmful algal blooms and a huge industrial discharge site for dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDTs). Studies in experimental animals suggest that chronic poisoning observed in immature sea lions may result from a spatial and temporal coincidence of DDTs and domoic acid during early life stages. Emergence of an epilepsy syndrome from the ocean brings a human epilepsy model to life and provides unexpected insights into interaction with legacy contaminants and expression of disease at different life stages. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Biotoxins: Novel Issues about Old Compounds)
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