CLUPEOTOXIN
On October I posted a message asking if anyone knew of literature on
clupeotoxin. I had conducted a brief search in the Web and come up with the
paper by De Ribes et al, 1997, which I cited in my message. I thought I
should let you know the outcome of my request and further searches.
A couple of correspondents drew my attention to Halstead's (1967) book. I
knew of the existence of this very compendious and useful book, but I do not
have access to a copy, and was not aware it had a chapter on clupeotoxin.
One correspondent sent me a copy of the relevant pages. Pamela Tom sent me
the output of a computer search of UC Davis's library data bases which
included Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts Food Science and
Technology Abstracts which threw up the De Ribes paper, a dissertation,
1990, from the Tierarztliche Hochschule, Hannnover, consisting of 'eine
Literaturestudie' of toxins of fish, and a review in 1979 by Rege et al of
the Medical College, Bombay on 'Fresh fish poisoning'. I haven't followed
up the last two. The two data bases, I think, go back about 20 years in
computer searchable forms so it looked as though there is little new
published information on clupeotoxin. Another correspondent gave me two more
references, Kantha (1987) and Melton et al (1984) which I have not seen, but
I have included in the Bibliography following. A further search of the Web
using Google, (I find this much more effective than other search Engines and
I can strongly recommend it), brought out more, and interesting,
information.
Halstead lists 20 or so species of fish as being reported to have been the
source of clupeotoxosis. Most, but not all, were Clupeidae or Engraulidae
families, and incidents were reported from the tropical Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans, and the Carribean. He lists the toxicology, pharmacology and
chemistry as 'unknown', but quotes sources that associated poisonous fish
with algal blooms. The De Ribes (1997) paper reports two persons succumbing
to the toxicosis after eating a local sardinella of which one died. They
report that samples were taken for identification of the toxin, but do not
report the outcome. The Web search came up with a note on a WHO site
(www.who.int/fsf/fish/Clupeotoxism.html) on Clupeotoxism quoting from a
report on seafood poisonings in tropical regions published in 1984. (One
correspondent referred to the existence of a WHO report without citing the
reference). The note adds a few more instances of clupeotoxism after
Halstead's book, and describes some chemical studies on extraction of the
toxin, but without identification of it. A correspondent drew my attention
to clupeotoxin's being palytoxin and cited Yasumoto and Satake, (1998).
I then made a search of the Web using Google for 'palytoxin' and came up
with a very large number of hits. Many were just mentions of palytoxin as
being a toxin from marine invertebrates, but others described the
pharmacology and chemistry of the toxin. I did not come across any more than
I have already referred to that linked palytoxin to clupeotoxin. There is an
excellent picture of the structure of palytoxin at
www.chem.wisc.edu/~bestchem/palytoxn.htm. It is reported as being the most
potent marine toxin known. Readers might like to note a report at the WHO
site, www.who.int/fsf/fish/CrabPoisonig.html (yes, the next to last word is
spelled like that) which cites poisoning from consumption of crabs and
identifies the causative toxins. The crabs accumulate the toxins from their
food and one of the toxins was palytoxin present in species of zoanthids (a
type of sea anemone). There is an excellent review by F.M. van Dolah of NOAA
national Ocean Service on Diversity of Marine and Freshwater Algal Toxins at
www.chbr.noaa.gov/CoastalResearch/Diversity/Essay.htm. The author makes a
brief mention of palytoxin at the end of part 3. The paper is about the
origins, chemistry and pharmacology of the toxins rather than about public
health aspects, but well worth reading for these aspects. The authority on
palytoxins is Professor Takeshi Yasumoto, Faculty of Agriculture
Tohoku University, Japan, who is author or coauthor of many papers on marine
toxins. I have requested copies of his papers on palytoxin, but have not
received them yet.
Yasumoto identified palytoxin as the toxin involved in fatalities in
Madagsascar following consumption of a sardinella type fish. The literature
I came across on the web reported the presence of palytoxin in
coelenterates, particularly zoanthids. There is a report on the systematics
and biology of the zoanthids at www.aquarium.net/0198/0198_1.shtml,
including a mention of the production of palytoxin. Crabs graze on these and
become toxic, but the plankton eating fish associated with clupeotoxicosis
would not be grazing these sessile coelenterates. However, I came across a
couple of reference in my search, Chang (1999), which reported its presence
in dinoflagellates. This would account for the toxicity of planktivores and
the association with algal, dinoflagellate, blooms.
Peter Howgate
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chang, F.H. (1999). Life cycle of a palytoxin-producing dinoflagellate from
northern New Zealand. Water & Atmosphere 7(4): 15-16.
de Ribes, G.C., Rasolofonirina, R.N., Ranaivoson,G., Razafimahefa, N.,
Rakotoson, J.D. & Rabeson, D. (1997). Intoxicants par animaux marins
vénéneux a Madagascar (ichthyosarcotoxisme et chelonitoxisme): données
épidémiologiques récentes. Bulletin de la Societe de Pathologie Exotique.
90(4), 286-290.
Kantha, S. S. (1987). Ichthyotoxins and Their Implications to Human Health.
Asian Med. J. 30(8), 458-470.
Melton, R. J., J. E. Randall, et al. (1984). Fatal Sardine Poisoning - A
Fatal Case of Fish Poisoning in Hawaii Associated with the Marquesan
Sardine. Hawaii Medical Journal 43(40), 114-124.
Onuma, Y. Satake, M., Ukena, T., Roux, J., Chanteau, S., Rasolofonirina, N.,
Ratsimaloto, M., Naoki, H. & Yasumoto, T. (1999). Identification of
putative palytoxin as the cause of clupeotoxism. Toxicon, 37, 55-65.
Usami, M., Satake, M., Ishida, S., Inoue, A., Kan, Y. & Yasumoto, T. (1995).
Palytoxin analogs from the dinoflagellate Ostreopsis siamensis, Journal of
the American Chemical Society, 117, 5389-5390.
Yasumoto, T. & Satake, M. (1998). New Toxins and their Toxicological
Evaluations. In: Harmful Algae, (B. Reguera, J. Blanco, M. L. Fernandes and
T. Wyatt, Eds.). Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO 1998,
pp461-464.
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