Determination of the toxic variability of lipophilic biotoxins in marine bivalve and gastropod tissues treated with an industrial canning process

Abstract

Contamination of shellfish with lipophilic marine biotoxins (LMB), pectenotoxins (PTXs), yessotoxins (YTXs) and okadaic acid (OA) toxin groups in southern Chile is a constant challenge for the development of miticulture considering the high incidence of toxic episodes that tend to occur. This research is focused on using methodologies for assessing the decrease in toxins of natural resources in Chile with high value, without altering the organoleptic properties of the shellfish. The species were processed through steaming (1 min at 121°C) and subsequent canning (5 min at 121°C). Changes in the profiles of toxins and total toxicity levels of LMB in endemic bivalves and gastropods were determined using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The total reduction of toxicity (≈ 15%) was not related to the destruction of the toxin, but rather to the loss of LMB on removing the shells and packing media of canned products (***p < 0.001). Industrial processing of shellfish reduces LMB contents by up to 15% of the total initial contents, concomitant only with the interconversion of PTX-group toxins into PTX-2sa. In soft bottom-dwelling species with toxicities beyond the standard for safe human consumption (≥ 160 μg OA-eq kg), toxicity can be reduced to safe levels through industrial preparation procedures.

Determination of Lipophilic Marine Biotoxins in Mussels Harvested from the Adriatic Sea by LC-MS/MS

“…The OA group consists of OA and its isomers, the dinophysistoxins1 and 2 (DTX1, DTX2) and in addition the fatty acid ester derivatives of OA or DTX1 and DTX2 named DTX3 (Braga et al, 2017 ). These marine biotoxins are responsible of the human diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) characterized by gastrointestinal disorders such as nausea, vomiting, severe diarrhea and abdominal cramps (García et al, 2016 ). The mechanism of action of OA and DTX is linked to the inhibition of serine/threonine protein phosphatases (Ferreiro et al, 2015 ).…”

Instrumental Methods for Detection of Lipophilic Marine Toxins in Endemic Species from Pacific Austral Fjords

“…Clearance rate: Feeding status, species-specific filtration rates and selectivity, as well as the species of microorganisms that can affect endemic species (bacteria and pathogenic viruses) [12,26].…”

“…Within these disadvantages, it has been established that MBA is able to detect toxins of the OA-, AZA-and YTX-groups. However, the result will never be able to determine the exact group responsible for it, as there is a co-occurrence of these toxins in contaminated endemic species (shellfish) [7,12,13,26].…”

“…Finally, one of the biggest disadvantages of PP2aIA is its inability to identify toxins or toxic analogues associated with PTX-, AZA-and YTX-groups [121]. Thus, PP2aIA is only limited to identify the presence of the toxins associated with OA-group, when applicable, even though the co-occurrence of toxins in water or shellfish is evident [12,13,26]. Therefore, to identify all toxins in the hypothetical simultaneous presence of all toxic groups in contaminated shellfish, the specific use of enzymatic or cellular assays will be required, considering also that they will never be able to identify the analogues involved in the toxic event accurately [7,10].…”

“…The number of people intoxicated with these phycotoxins worldwide has reached an average of 60,000 cases per year. This, in turn, produces a large impact on the local economy due to its negative effects on tourism, recreation, and miticulture and aquaculture industries [25,26]. In Europe, the losses estimated every year in tourism as a result of HABs are approximately € 700 million and about € 116 million in miticulture [1,4,27].…”