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Pinto A, Botelho MJ, Churro C, Asselman J, Pereira P, Pereira JL. A review on aquatic toxins - Do we really know it all regarding the environmental risk posed by phytoplankton neurotoxins? JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2023; 345:118769. [PMID: 37597370 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118769] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2023] [Revised: 07/24/2023] [Accepted: 08/09/2023] [Indexed: 08/21/2023]
Abstract
Aquatic toxins are potent natural toxins produced by certain cyanobacteria and marine algae species during harmful cyanobacterial and algal blooms (CyanoHABs and HABs, respectively). These harmful bloom events and the toxins produced during these events are a human and environmental health concern worldwide, with occurrence, frequency and severity of CyanoHABs and HABs being predicted to keep increasing due to ongoing climate change scenarios. These contexts, as well as human health consequences of some toxins produced during bloom events have been thoroughly reviewed before. Conversely, the wider picture that includes the non-human biota in the assessment of noxious effects of toxins is much less covered in the literature and barely covered by review works. Despite direct human exposure to aquatic toxins and related deleterious effects being responsible for the majority of the public attention to the blooms' problematic, it constitutes a very limited fraction of the real environmental risk posed by these toxins. The disruption of ecological and trophic interactions caused by these toxins in the aquatic biota building on deleterious effects they may induce in different species is paramount as a modulator of the overall magnitude of the environmental risk potentially involved, thus necessarily constraining the quality and efficiency of the management strategies that should be placed. In this way, this review aims at updating and consolidating current knowledge regarding the adverse effects of aquatic toxins, attempting to going beyond their main toxicity pathways in human and related models' health, i.e., also focusing on ecologically relevant model organisms. For conciseness and considering the severity in terms of documented human health risks as a reference, we restricted the detailed revision work to neurotoxic cyanotoxins and marine toxins. This comprehensive revision of the systemic effects of aquatic neurotoxins provides a broad overview of the exposure and the hazard that these compounds pose to human and environmental health. Regulatory approaches they are given worldwide, as well as (eco)toxicity data available were hence thoroughly reviewed. Critical research gaps were identified particularly regarding (i) the toxic effects other than those typical of the recognized disease/disorder each toxin causes following acute exposure in humans and also in other biota; and (ii) alternative detection tools capable of being early-warning signals for aquatic toxins occurrence and therefore provide better human and environmental safety insurance. Future directions on aquatic toxins research are discussed in face of the existent knowledge, with particular emphasis on the much-needed development and implementation of effective alternative (eco)toxicological biomarkers for these toxins. The wide-spanning approach followed herein will hopefully stimulate future research more broadly addressing the environmental hazardous potential of aquatic toxins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Albano Pinto
- CESAM - Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, Portugal.
| | - Maria João Botelho
- IPMA, Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere, Av. Alfredo Magalhães Ramalho 6, 1495-165, Algés, Portugal; CIIMAR, Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, University of Porto, Terminal de Cruzeiros do Porto, Av. General Norton de Matos s/n, 4450-208, Matosinhos, Portugal
| | - Catarina Churro
- IPMA, Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere, Av. Alfredo Magalhães Ramalho 6, 1495-165, Algés, Portugal; CIIMAR, Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, University of Porto, Terminal de Cruzeiros do Porto, Av. General Norton de Matos s/n, 4450-208, Matosinhos, Portugal
| | - Jana Asselman
- Blue Growth Research Lab, Ghent University, Bluebridge Building, Ostend Science Park 1, 8400, Ostend, Belgium
| | - Patrícia Pereira
- CESAM - Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, Portugal
| | - Joana Luísa Pereira
- CESAM - Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, Portugal
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Petroff R, Hendrix A, Shum S, Grant KS, Lefebvre KA, Burbacher TM. Public health risks associated with chronic, low-level domoic acid exposure: A review of the evidence. Pharmacol Ther 2021; 227:107865. [PMID: 33930455 DOI: 10.1016/j.pharmthera.2021.107865] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2020] [Revised: 04/02/2021] [Accepted: 04/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Domoic acid (DA), the causative agent for the human syndrome Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (ASP), is a potent, naturally occurring neurotoxin produced by common marine algae. DA accumulates in seafood, and humans and wildlife alike can subsequently be exposed when consuming DA-contaminated shellfish or finfish. While strong regulatory limits protect people from the acute effects associated with ASP, DA is an increasingly significant public health concern, particularly for coastal dwelling populations, and there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that there are significant health consequences following repeated exposures to levels of the toxin below current safety guidelines. However, gaps in scientific knowledge make it difficult to precisely determine the risks of contemporary low-level exposure scenarios. The present review characterizes the toxicokinetics and neurotoxicology of DA, discussing results from clinical and preclinical studies after both adult and developmental DA exposure. The review also highlights crucial areas for future DA research and makes the case that DA safety limits need to be reassessed to best protect public health from deleterious effects of this widespread marine toxin.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebekah Petroff
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Alicia Hendrix
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Sara Shum
- Department of Pharmaceutics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Kimberly S Grant
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; Center on Human Development and Disability, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Kathi A Lefebvre
- Environmental and Fisheries Sciences Division, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, 2725 Montlake Blvd. East, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Thomas M Burbacher
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; Center on Human Development and Disability, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; Infant Primate Research Laboratory, Washington National Primate Research Center, Seattle,WA, USA.
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Radad K, Moldzio R, Al-Shraim M, Al-Emam A, Rausch WD. Long-term neurotoxic effects of domoic acid on primary dopaminergic neurons. Toxicol In Vitro 2018; 52:279-285. [PMID: 30017864 DOI: 10.1016/j.tiv.2018.07.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2018] [Revised: 07/09/2018] [Accepted: 07/10/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Domoic acid, an excitatory neurotoxin produced by certain algae, reaches the food chain through accumulation in some sea organisms. To investigate its long-term neurotoxicity on dopaminergic neurons, prepared primary mesencephalic cell cultures were exposed to different concentrations of domoic acid (0.1, 1, 10, 100 μM) on the 8th day in vitro (DIV) for 4 days. On the 12th DIV, culture media were collected for measurement of lactate dehydrogenase and cultured cells were subjected to immunohistochemistry against tyrosine hydroxylase, neuronal nuclear antigen and glial fibrillary acidic protein, and fluorescence staining using H2DCFDA, JC-1 and Hoechst 33342 dyes. Moreover, roles of AMPA/KA and NMDA receptors in domoic acid neurotoxicity were also investigated. Domoic acid significantly decreased the number of dopaminergic neurons and adversely affected their morphology, and slightly reduced the expression of neuronal nuclear antigen and glial fibrillary acidic protein. Co-treatment of cultures with domoic acid and the AMPA/KA or NMDA receptor antagonists NBQX and MK-801 rescued significant number of dopaminergic neurons. Domoic acid significantly decreased red:green fluorescence ratio of JC-1 and did not affect production of reactive oxygen species and apoptotic cell death. In conclusions, the present study reveals that long-term treatment of primary mesencephalic cell culture with domoic acid significantly destroyed dopaminergic neurons. This effect appears to be attributed to activation of AMPA/KA and NMDA receptors and mitochondrial damage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Khaled Radad
- Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia; Department of Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt.
| | - Rudolf Moldzio
- Department for Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Medical Biochemistry, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
| | - Mubarak Al-Shraim
- Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia
| | - Ahmed Al-Emam
- Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia; Forensic and Toxicology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt
| | - Wolf-Dieter Rausch
- Department for Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Medical Biochemistry, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
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Botana LM, Hess P, Munday R, Nathalie A, DeGrasse SL, Feeley M, Suzuki T, van den Berg M, Fattori V, Garrido Gamarro E, Tritscher A, Nakagawa R, Karunasagar I. Derivation of toxicity equivalency factors for marine biotoxins associated with Bivalve Molluscs. Trends Food Sci Technol 2017. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tifs.2016.09.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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How Safe Is Safe for Marine Toxins Monitoring? Toxins (Basel) 2016; 8:toxins8070208. [PMID: 27399774 PMCID: PMC4963841 DOI: 10.3390/toxins8070208] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2016] [Revised: 06/27/2016] [Accepted: 07/01/2016] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Current regulation for marine toxins requires a monitoring method based on mass spectrometric analysis. This method is pre-targeted, hence after searching for pre-assigned masses, it identifies those compounds that were pre-defined with available calibrants. Therefore, the scope for detecting novel toxins which are not included in the monitoring protocol are very limited. In addition to this, there is a poor comprehension of the toxicity of some marine toxin groups. Also, the validity of the current approach is questioned by the lack of sufficient calibrants, and by the insufficient coverage by current legislation of the toxins reported to be present in shellfish. As an example, tetrodotoxin, palytoxin analogs, or cyclic imines are mentioned as indicators of gaps in the system that require a solid comprehension to assure consumers are protected.
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