• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.147-153
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• 2013

To prevent paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) due to the consumption of shellfish contaminated with PSP toxins, the quantitative analysis of these toxins is very crucial. The AOAC International mouse bioassay (MBA) has been used widely for the routine monitoring of PSP toxins for more than 50 years. However, this method has low sensitivity and high limit of quantification (LOQ) and interferences from other components in the extract, and it cannot determine toxic profiles. Ethical problems also exist with the continued use of this live mouse assay. To establish an alternative method to the MBA used for PSP toxins analysis, we attempted to optimize the analysis conditions of a precolumn high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) oxidation method and succeeded in validating its accuracy and precision in quantifying PSP toxins. A clear peak and the isolation of PSP toxins were obtained by injecting the working standards of Certified Reference Materials using HPLC. The LOQ of the precolumn HPLC oxidation method for PSP toxins was about $0.1002{\mu}g/g$, which represented an approximately fourfold improvement in detection capability versus the AOAC MBA. The intra-accuracy and precision for PSP toxins in oysters were 77.0-103.3% and 2.0-5.7%, respectively, while the respective inter-accuracy and precision were 77.3-100.7% and 2.4-6.0%. The mean recoveries of PSP toxins from oysters were 75.2-112.1%. The results of a comparison study showed good correlation between the results of the precolumn HPLC oxidation method and those of MBA, with a correlation factor of 0.9291 for mussels. The precolumn HPLC oxidation method may be used as an alternative to, or supplementary method with, MBA to monitor the occurrence of PSP toxins and to analyze the profiles of these toxins in shellfish.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Food Hygiene and Safety Conference
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• 1998.04a
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• pp.19-33
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• 1998

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.158-160
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• 1997

Food poisoning accident occurred on May, 1996 at Oepo, Geoje County, Kyeongnam Province, Korea, and two persons were died within a few hours after ingestion of the soup prepared with wild mussel, Mytilus edulis, harvested on the sea rock. Paralytic shellfish poisons (PSP) were elucidated as the responsible toxins for the food poisons accident because the wild mussels caught after three days at the near place from the accident contained high toxicity of PSP ranged $650\~1000MU/g$ of edible meat by mouse bioassay. Gonyautoxin-1+4 $(42.7\%)$ and C1+C2 $(40.0\%)$ were detected as the major toxins in the mussels by fluorometric HPLC method. Although, the poison extracted out with drip during freezing and thawing, and the toxicity gradually decreased by boiling for 20 minutes, over 30 MU/g of toxins remained in the soup and meat, which indicated that they could be able to make food poisoning.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.155-160
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• 1999

Studies on detoxification of Paralytic Shellfish Poison (PSP)-infested oyster, Crassostrea gigas were carried out using available processing resources. Changes of paralytic shellfish toxin components and specific toxicity during canning process were also investigated with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Toxic oysters collected at Hachong in Koje Bay were used for experimental samples. The toxicity of oysters with range of 185-778 ug/100g was reduced below the quarantine limit of 80 ug/100g or not detected level by the mouse bioassay after canning process. The mole $\%$ of toxin components in the shucked oyster was in the order of 25.1 mole $\%$ of gonyautoxin 1, 19.2 mole $\%$ of gonyautoxin 3, 17.2 mole $\%$ of gonyautoxin 4 and 14.6 mole $\%$ of gonyautoxin 2. This sample had tracing amounts of Cl, C2, saxitoxin and neosaxitoxin. In the case of specific toxicity, the major toxins were consisted of gonyautoxin 1-4. The sum of gonyautoxin 1, 2, 3 and 4 was 80% of total toxicity of oyster. Saxitoxin and decarbamoylsaxitoxin were the more thermostable than any other toxin components.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.669-674
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• 2017

Paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs) are produced by marine dinoflagellate phytoplankton Alexandrium spp. and Gymnodinium spp. These toxins accumulate in filter feeding organisms such as bivalves and the ingestion of contaminated shellfish can cause illness in humans. The mouse bioassay (MBA) has been the preferred PST testing method worldwide for more than 50 years. However, this assay has several disadvantages, such as detection limits, non-toxic-profiles, and the ethical issues of using animals. The aim of this study was to establish an alternative to the MBA method for testing for PSTs. We optimized the analysis conditions of a post-column oxidation-high performance liquid chromatography (PCOX-HPLC) method and the Scotia Rapid Test Kit, and then compared the accuracy of these methods to the MBA method. The results demonstrated a strong correlation between the PCOX-HPLC method and the MBA, although the PCOX-HPLC method required expensive equipment and standard material, and was time consuming. The Scotia Rapid Test Kit promises to be a useful tool, as it provided rapid and qualitative results, although the method sometimes gave a false positive result that could not be explained by toxin profiles.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.137-142
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• 2013

To understand critical aspects of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) in a chief area of bivalve production in Korea, seasonal variation in PSP toxins in bivalves collected from Jinhae Bay, Korea in 2009 was surveyed by the pre-column high-performance liquid chromatography oxidation method. We also confirmed the profiles of major bivalves such as oysters Crassostrea gigas and mussels Mytilus galloprovincialis in Jinhae Bay. PSP toxins in the bivalves showed remarkable seasonal variation. PSP toxin levels were detected from April to May in 2009, and the highest total toxin levels at all stations were recorded in May. The major toxins in bivalves were gonyautoxin [GTX] 1&4 and C 1&2; in oysters GTX 2&3 were also detected as major components. GTX 1&4, which showed the highest PSP toxin levels at each station, accounted for the highest proportions of toxin components in mussels and oysters (64.5-71.3% and 41.4-42.4%, respectively). It was also confirmed that the highest toxicity (in ${\mu}g$ saxitoxin [STX] eq/g) was derived from GTX 1&4. The highest total toxicity (in ${\mu}g$ STX eq/g) was approximately 2-8-fold higher in mussels than in oysters collected from the same station. PSP toxin levels in bivalves differed significantly according to the sample collection station. However, the profiles of toxins in the bivalves did not show significant differences during the survey period according to sample collection station. This study shows that PSP toxin levels in some samples from Jinhae Bay were above the regulatory limit in Korea during a specific period in spring.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.900-908
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• 1996

Changes of paralytic shellfish toxin components and specific toxicity in blue mussel, Mytilus edu/is and oyster, Crassostrea gigas during canning process were investigated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The $mole\%$ of the frozen shucked blue mussel were in order of $27.5\;mole\%$ of gonyautoxin 1, $23.0\;mole\%$ of gonyautoxin 8 (C1) and $23.0\;mole\%$ of epi-gonyautoxin 8 (C2), while those of the frozen shucked oyster were in order of $29\;mole\%$ of C1, $22\;mole\%$ of C2, $16.7\;mole\%$ of gonyautoxin 2. Both samples had minor amounts of saxitoxin and neosaxitoxin. On the other hand, in case of specific toxicity, the major toxins were consisted of gonyautoxin $1\~4$ in both sample. The toxicity of gonyautoxin $1\~4$ were 88 and $84\%$ in blue mussel and oyster, respectively. According to the experimental results, C1, C2 and gonyautoxin 4 were very sensitive to heat treatment, while gonyautoxin 2 and saxitoxin were pretty heat resistant than any other toxin components.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.159-164
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• 2013

The mouse bioassay and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) post-column oxidation method are different methods of quantifying paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins. In this study, we compared their ability to accurately quantify the toxicity levels in two types of field sample (oysters and mussels) with different toxin profiles for routine regulatory monitoring. A total of 72 samples were analyzed by both methods, 44 of which gave negative results, with readings under the limit of detection of the mouse bioassay ($40{\mu}g/100g$ saxitoxin [STX] eq). In 14 oysters, the major toxin components were gonyautoxin (GTX) 1, -2, -3, -4, -5, decarbamoylgonyautoxin-2 (dcGTX2), and decarbamoylsaxitoxin (dcSTX), while 14 mussels tested positive for dcSTX, GTX2, -3, -4, -5, dcGTX2, neosaxitoxin (NEO), STX, and dcSTX. When the results obtained by both methods were compared in two matrices, a better correlation ($r^2=0.9478$) was obtained for mussels than for oysters ($r^2=0.8244$). Additional studies are therefore needed in oysters to investigate the differences in the results obtained by both methods. Importantly, some samples with toxin levels around the legal limit gave inconsistent results using HPLC-based techniques, which could have a strong economic impact due to enforced harvest area closure. It should therefore be determined if all paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins can be quantified accurately by HPLC, and if the uncertainties of the method lead to doubts regarding regulatory limits.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.174-180
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• 2020

The mouse bioassay has been used widely for the monitoring of paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs) in many countries. However, this method shows low sensitivity and high limit of detection (LOD), as well as it cannot confirm toxic profiles. Recently, LC-MS/MS method was studied for the quantitative of PSTs, however, the method has any problems with unstable retention times by ionization suppression caused by high salt concentration in shellfish extracts. To establish an alternative method for PSTs analysis, we tried to original LC-MS/MS methods adding desalting operation using amorphous graphitized polymer carbon solid-phase extraction cartridges. The method validation was conducted to determine linearity, limit of detection, limit of quantification (LOQ), accuracy, and precision in quantifying PSTs. The correlation coefficients for all tested PSTs maintained over 0.999. The LODs and LOQs for all PSTs were about 0.19-1.05 ㎍/kg and 0.58-3.18 ㎍/kg, respectively. The accuracies for PSTs were 95.4-107.7% for saxitoxin group, 97.1-100.9% for gonyautoxin group, 99.0-100.8% for N-sulfocarbamoyl toxin group, and 96.8-104.6% for decarbamoyl toxin group. These results indicate that the modified LC-MS/MS method was appropriate for analyzing the PSTs in shellfish and tunicates.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.76-82
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• 2005

We analyzed the paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins of the toxic marine dinoflagellate Alexandrium tamarense collected from Dadaepo and Gaduck-do in Busan and from Sujeong-ri in Jinhae Bay, Korea, in April 2003. We also analyzed the PSP toxin of mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) and oysters (Crassostrea gigas) collected around Busan and Jinhae Bay. PSP toxin analyses were conducted by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Fifteen cultured A. tamarense isolates contained 2.78 to 57.47 fmol/cell, with nearly identical toxin profiles: major components C2, GTX4; minor components C1, GTX1, NEO; and trace components GTX2, GTX3, STX. PSP toxin contents were 0 to $492\;\mu{g}$ STXeq/100 g in mussels and 0 to $48\;\mu{g}$ STXeq/100 g in oysters. Mussels at Gijang and Sujeong-ri contained the most PSP toxin contents ($492\;\mu{g}\;STXeq/100\;g\;and\;252\;\mu{g}\;STXeq/100\;g,\;respectively$), exceeding the quarantine level ($80\;\mu{g}$ STXeq/100 g). Their dominant toxin components were C2, C1, GTX2, and GTX3; the minor components GTX1, GTX4, GTX5, and NEO were sporadically detected. Phytoplankton contained 0.774 fmol/L seawater and 1.228 fmol/L seawater at Gijang and Sujeong-ri in April. At that time, Alexandrium cells were present in the water column at Gijang at 2,577 cells/mL and at Sujeong-ri at 6,750 cells/mL. Overall, we found the high and similar PSP toxin contents in AZexandrium isolates and mussels, and a correlation between occurrence of toxic Alexandrium cells in the water column and mussel intoxification. High densities of toxic Alexandrium cells in the water column immediately preceded shellfish intoxification at Gijang and Sujeong-ri in April.