Analysis of Marine Biotoxins Using LC-MS/MS

Different clinical types of algae-related poisoning have attracted scientific and commercial attention: paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP), diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP), and amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP). Bioassays are common methods for the determination of marine biotoxins. However, biological tests are not completely satisfactory, mainly due to the low sensitivity and the absence of specialized variations. In this context LC-MS methods replaced HPLC methods with optical detectors, allowing both effective seafood control and monitoring of phytoplankton in terms of the different groups of marine biotoxins. This chapter describes state-of-the-art LC-MS/MS methods for the detection and quantitation of different classes of phycotoxins in shellfish matrices. These classes include the highly hydrophilic paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins. Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) has been shown to be useful in the separation of PSP toxins and is described in detail within this chapter. Another important class of phycotoxins is diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) toxins. This group traditionally comprises okadaic acid and dinophysistoxins (DTXs), pectenotoxins (PTXs), and yessotoxins (YTXs). The most recently described shellfish poisoning syndrome, azaspiracid shellfish poisoning (AZP) is caused by azaspiracids, which in turn are diarrhetic, but usually are treated separately as AZP. The last group of regulated shellfish toxins is the amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP) toxin domoic acid, produced by species of the genus Pseudo-nitzschia.