How the marine biotoxins affect human health

Several marine microalgae produce dangerous toxins very damaging to human health, aquatic ecosystems and coastal resources. These Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) in recent decades seem greatly increased regarding frequency, severity and biogeographical level, causing serious health risks as a consequence of the consumption of contaminated seafood. Toxins can cause various clinically described syndromes, characterised by a wide range of symptoms: amnesic (ASP), diarrhoetic (DSP), azaspirazid (AZP), neurotoxic (NSP) and paralytic (PSP) shellfish poisonings and ciguatera fish poisoning. The spread of HABs is probably a result of anthropogenic activities and climate change, that influence marine planktonic systems, including global warming, habitat modification, eutrophication and growth of exogenous species in response to human pressures. HABs are a worldwide matter that requests local solutions and international cooperation. This review supplies an overview of HAB phenomena, and, in particular, we describe the major consequences of HABs on human health.     

HPLC determination of domoic acid in shellfish based on magnetic molecularly imprinting polymers

A magnetic molecularly imprinting polymer for domoic acid was fabricated. Synthesis conditions were optimized. The polymer particles have high magnetization for rapid magnetic separation. The apparent maximum absorption amount and dissociation constant of the polymer were 1,600?µg?g^?1 and 20.6?µg?mL^?1, respectively. The polymer retained 90% of adsorption amount after 5 times of repeated use. It was used as an adsorbent for purification and HPLC detection of domoic acid in shellfish with a detection limit of 0.050?µg?g^?1. Thus, the polymer could be applied to the sample pretreatment of aquatic products.     

Development of a novel immunobiosensor method for the rapid detection of okadaic acid contamination in shellfish extracts

The mouse bioassay is the methodology that is most widely used to detect okadaic acid (OA) in shellfish samples. This is one of the best-known toxins, and it belongs to the family of marine biotoxins referred to as the diarrhetic shellfish poisons (DSP). Due to animal welfare concerns, alternative methods of toxin detection are being sought. A rapid and specific biosensor immunoassay method was developed and validated for the detection of OA. An optical sensor instrument based on the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomenon was utilised. A polyclonal antibody to OA was raised against OA–bovine thyroglobulin conjugate and OA–N-hydroxy succinimide ester was immobilised onto an amine sensor chip surface. The assay parameters selected for the analysis of the samples were: antibody dilution, 1/750; ratio of antibody to standard, 1:1; volume of sample injected, 25 μl min⁻¹; flow rate, 25 μl min⁻¹. An assay action limit of 126 ng g⁻¹ was established by analysing of 20 shellfish samples spiked with OA at the critical concentration of 160 ng g⁻¹, which is the action limit established by the European Union (EU). At this concentration of OA, the assay delivered coefficient of variations (CVs) of <10%. The chip surface developed was shown to be highly stable, allowing more than 50 analyses per channel. When the concentrations of OA determined with the biosensor method were compared with the values obtained by LC–MS in contaminated shellfish samples, the correlation between the two analytical methods was found to be highly satisfactory (r ² = 0.991). Figure Biacore     

Use of gel permeation chromatography for automatic and rapid extract clean-up for the determination of diarrhetic shellfish toxins (DSP) by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

Summary A new analytical technique was established to improve the performance of DSP toxin determination in different sample matrices. High performance size exclusion chromatography (gel permeation chromatography, SEC) was applied for the clean-up of raw extracts from algal cells and mussel tissue prior to the determination of DSP toxins by LC/MS. The proposed protocol can be performed totally automatically and enables fast and sensitive analysis of large sample numbers. The recovery of the entire method protocol (consisting of extraction, clean-up and LC/MS determination) was approximately 70% with good repeatability (standard deviation ranging from 1.9% to 5.0% in the concentration range analyzed).     

软骨藻酸分子印迹聚合物的制备及其固相萃取应用

以贝毒-软骨藻酸的结构类似物1,3,5-戊烷三羧酸为模板分子,4-乙烯基吡啶为功能单体,乙二醇二甲基双丙烯酸酯为交联剂,合成了对软骨藻酸具有较好选择性的分子印迹聚合物。经索氏提取去除模板分子后,在聚合物内部形成了与模板分子1,3,5-戊烷三羧酸以及结构类似物软骨藻酸尺寸、形状以及活性基团互补的结合位点。通过静态平衡结合实验研究了该聚合物的结合能力和选择性能,与化学组成相同的相应非印迹聚合物相比,1,3,5-戊烷三羧酸的分子印迹聚合物对软骨藻酸具有较高的吸附性能和选择性。用150mg印迹聚合物填充于1.0mL玻璃注射器制成的分子印迹固相萃取柱,采用离线模式,并结合高效液相色谱实现紫贻贝和海水中软骨藻酸的分离与检测。对于加标2mg/L的紫贻贝和海水样品,回收率分别达到(93.4±4.9)%和(89.7±3.2)%(n=3)。     

Determination of paralytic shellfish toxins in dinoflagellate Alexandrium tamarense by using isotachophoresis/capillary electrophoresis

Baseline separation of seven paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs), namely decarbamoylsaxitoxin (dcSTX), saxitoxin (STX), neosaxitoxin (NEO), gonyautoxin-2 (GTX-2), gonyautoxin-3 (GTX-3), gonyautoxin-1 (GTX-1), and gonyautoxin-4 (GTX-4), was achieved by using capillary ITP (CITP)/CE with UV detection. Separation parameters including duration time and voltage in CITP process, separation voltage, and pH and concentration of buffer were optimized. The developed method provided linear responses from 1.3 to 200 microM for the PSTs. The LOD ranged from 0.1 to 0.3 microM. PST extracts from two algal strains of Alexandrium tamarense were analyzed and the toxin concentrations in the samples were quantified with an internal standard method by using NEO as the internal standard. The algal extract of A. tamarense HK9301 contained 332 microM GTX-2 and 224 microM GTX-3, while the PSTs were not detected in the extract of A. tamarense CI01.     

Fast analysis of domoic acid using microchip electrophoresis with laser‐induced fluorescence detection

A fast and effective method was developed to detect domoic acid based upon microchip electrophoresis combined with laser‐induced fluorescence detection. Through study of the gated injection process on the cross channel of the microchip, the low‐voltage mode with relatively longer sample loading time was adopted to reduce the sample discrimination and improve the signal sensitivity. Fluorescein isothiocyanate was used as the derivatizing reagent for domoic acid. Under the optimized conditions, domoic acid was completely separated in 60 s with separation efficiency of 1.35 × 10⁵ m⁻¹. The calibration curve was obtained in the range of 1.0 × 10⁻⁹ to 1.0 × 10⁻⁷ mol/L, and the detection limit reached 2.8 × 10⁻¹⁰ mol/L. This developed method was successfully applied to analyze domoic acid in real samples.     

Capillary electrophoresis inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry combined with metal tag for ultrasensitively determining trace saxitoxin in seafood

As one of paralytic shellfish toxins, the saxitoxin (STX) in the aqueous environment can be accumulated by most shellfish, and thus harms human health through the food chain. Therefore, it is crucial to determine trace STX in seafood samples in order to ensure the safety of seafood consumption. In this study, we developed a novel indirect method for ultrasensitively determining trace STX in seafood by using CE‐ICP‐MS together with Eu³⁺ chelate labeling. We demonstrated that diethylenetriamine‐N ,N ,N ′,N ″,N ″‐pentaacetic acid (DTPA) can couple with STX and simultaneously chelate with Eu³⁺ to realize metallic labeling of STX, and thus realize the ultrasensitive quantification of trace STX with CE‐ICP‐MS. The proposed method has strong antiinterference ability, good stability, and extremely high sensitivity. It could be used to determine trace STX in seafood samples with an extremely low detection limit of 0.38 fmol (3.8×10⁻⁹ M, 100 nL sample injection) and a relative standard deviation (RSD, n = 5) <7%. The success of this study provides an alternative to precise quantification of ultra‐trace STX in seafood samples, and further expands the application of ICP‐MS.     

阴/阳离子交换色谱-电感耦合等离子体质谱法分析鱼和贝类海产品砷的形态

采用阴(Hamilton PRP X100柱)阳(Dionex Ionpac CS- 10柱)离子交换色谱-电感耦合等离子体质谱联用技术,分别以pH 10.3的20 mmol/L NH4HCO3和pH 2.0的5 mmol/L吡啶溶液为流动相,建立了三价砷As(Ⅲ)、五价砷As(V)、一甲基砷酸MMA、二甲基砷酸DMA...     

几种饵料微藻基因组DNA的提取及其特异性引物的设计

用改良CTAB法提取我国沿海东南部滩涂贝类常见的4种饵料微藻的基因组DNA,结果发现提取的DNA产率高、完整性好,认为是一种简便而高效的微藻基因组DNA提取方法.对其18S rRNA 基因(18S rDNA)进行克隆与测序,并利用序列比对软件 MEGA 5.0对各微藻的18S rDNA序列进行两两比对,设计出了能够用于快速区分此4对饵料微藻的特异性PCR引物(Cha.F/Cha.R、Iso.F/Iso.R、Pla.F/Pla.R及Nan.F/Nan.R). PCR扩增验证实验结果显示,4对引物均具有很强的特异性,无交叉扩增现象.扩增片段大小范围为100~200 bp,满足实时荧光定量PCR的实验要求,在检测滩涂贝类对此4种饵料微藻的摄食选择性研究方面具有重要意义.