Aerosol palytoxin

Palytoxin 1. Aerosol 2. Sabotage No Minutes Minutes High Stable No Not effective No... 

Biotoxins, mainly of the spirolide family, have been principally monitored in shellfish samples. Reported toxin levels vary from 2-585 ng/g [206] to 11-7,950 ng/g [205] in shellfish from France and Italy, respectively, whereas reported values for Spanish mussels were in the range of 13-20 ng/g [82]. This study employed the use of different MS modes of operation, enhanced MS (EMS) and MS3 experiments in order to confirm the first occurrence of spirolides in Spanish shellfish. Okadaic acids were the principal toxin contaminants found in shellfish samples from Galicia, Spain, with levels reaching 2,012 ng/g [204]. Putative palytoxin was for the first time detected in Italian waters at levels of 1,350 ng for plankton pellet) and 1,950 ng for butanol extract thus, it was suggested to be the causative agent responsible for the Genoa 2005 outbreak showing respiratory Ulness in people exposed to marine aerosols [31]. 

O. ovata from Okinawa, Japan, produced a butanol-soluble compound which was lethal to mice (Nakajima et al. 1981) this was later confirmed by Yasumoto et al. (1987), who also detected slight haemolytic activity in the O. ovata cell extracts. On the other hand, crude methanol extracts of O. ovata from the Virgin Islands were found to be nontoxic to mice (Tindall et al. 1990). Summer blooms of O. ovata in the Italian coasts have been coimected to respiratory problems in swimmers and sunbathers, most probably through inhalation of toxic aerosols (Sansoni et al. 2003 Simoni et al. 2003, 2004) such problems could possibly arise from inhalation of a palytoxin-like substance (Paddle 2003). Finally, extracts of O. ovata from Brazil and the Mediterranean Sea contained substances exhibiting strong delayed haemolysis, inhibited by ouabain, and mouse lethality with symptoms typical of palytoxin (Graneli et al. 2002 Riobo et al. 2004 Penna et al. 2005). 

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