Detection of the marine toxin okadaic acid: assessing seafood safety

Diarrheic Shellfish Poisoning (DSP) is a gastrointestinal illness caused by consumption of shellfish contaminated with DSP toxins such as okadaic acid (OA) and dinophysistoxins (DTX). The occurrences of OA in bivalves induce not only public health problems but also economic damages to shellfish farming. Consequently, the development of fast, reliable and sensitive detection methods is an evident necessity. The mouse bioassay has been the reference and most commonly used analysis method. However, this technique suffers from low accuracy, specificity and ethical problems due to the animal experimentation. Thus, the development of alternative and efficient detection systems is required. Several biological, chemical, and immunological methods have been developed to evaluate the presence of DSP toxins in seafood. This review gives an overview of different analytical methods and new trends for the detection of OA. Over the past decade, considerable attention has been given to the development of biosensors for the efficient detection of marine toxin. Recent advances in the field of aptamers and nanomaterial offer exciting new opportunities to develop improved and more reliable devices allowing the detection of OA.