Astropecten polyacanthus

Thao NP, Cuong NX, Luyen BT, Quang TH, Hanh TT, Kim S et al (2013) Anti-Inflammatory components of the starfish Astropecten polyacanthus. Mar Drugs 11 2917-2926... 

Noguchi et al (1982) first identified TTX in a starfish Astropecten polyacanthus, suggesting that this species is involved in intoxication mechanism in the TTX-bearing trumpet shell C. sauliae. Subsequently, two starfish... 

Narita, H., Matsubara, S., Miwa, N., Akahane, S., Murakami, M., Got, T., Nara, M., Noguchi, T., Saito, T., Shida, Y., and Hashimoto, K. 1987. Vibrio alginolyticus, a TTX-producing bacterium isolated from the starfish Astropecten polyacanthus. Nippon Suisan Gakkaishi 53, 617-621. Nishikawa, T., Asai, M., Ohyabu, N., Yamamoto, N., and Isobe, M. 1999. Stereo-controlled synthesis of 5,11-dideoxytetrodotoxin. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 38, 3081-3084. 

Astropecten latespinosus and Astropecten scoparius were also added to the list ofTTX-bearingechinoderms (Maruyamaet a/., 1984,1985 Miyazawa et a/., 1985) from the results of toxicity examination of starfish collected from all over Japan. In the mouse assay, A. latespinosus and A. scoparius showed the toxicity scores of 13 and 5.7 MU/g, respectively. These findings made sure of TTX intoxication mechanism in gastropods to come from their food chain. Afterward, TTX study gave a clue to be expanded in many aspects. In 1985, TTX was also reported from starfish A. polyacanthus and A. scoparius from Seto Inland Sea, Japan, with the highest toxicity scores of 520 and 46 MU/g, respectively (Miyazawa et al., 1985). 

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