Department of Food Science, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan.
J Food Prot. 2005 Aug;68(8):1696-701. doi: 10.4315/0362-028x-68.8.1696.
The toxicity of the gastropod Nassarius glans was investigated. This gastropod was implicated in an incident of food paralytic poisoning on Tungsa Island, Taiwan, in April 2004. Six victims consumed both digestive glands and muscle. These tissues contained high concentrations of toxin; their highest toxicity scores were 2,048 and 2,992 MU/g, respectively, based on the tetrodotoxin (TTX) bioassay. The toxin was purified from these gastropods and analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography, which revealed TTX and related compounds 4-epi TTX and anhydro-TTX; paralytic shellfish poisons were not found. The urine and blood samples from patients were cleansed using a C18 Sep-Pak cartridge column and 3,000 molecular weight cutoff Ultrafree microcentrifuge filters, and the eluate was filtered and analyzed by liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. The detection limit for TTX was 1 ng/ml. The standard curves were linear in the range 30 to 600 ng/ml for urine and 1 to 30 ng/ml for blood. TTX was detected in all urine samples but in only three of four blood samples tested. Thus, the causative agent of gastropod food poisoning was identified as TTX.
研究了芋螺的毒性。这种腹足类动物与 2004 年 4 月台湾东沙岛发生的一起食物中毒性麻痹事件有关。6 名受害者同时食用了消化腺和肌肉。这些组织含有高浓度的毒素；根据河豚毒素（TTX）生物测定法，它们的最高毒性得分为 2048 和 2992 MU/g。从这些腹足类动物中纯化了毒素，并通过高效液相色谱法进行了分析，结果显示 TTX 及其相关化合物 4-表 TTX 和脱水 TTX；未发现麻痹性贝类毒素。使用 C18 Sep-Pak 小柱和 3000 分子量截止 Ultrafree 微离心过滤器对患者的尿液和血液样本进行净化，洗脱液经液相色谱和质谱分析。TTX 的检测限为 1ng/ml。尿液的标准曲线在 30 至 600ng/ml 范围内呈线性，血液的标准曲线在 1 至 30ng/ml 范围内呈线性。所有尿液样本中均检测到 TTX，但在 4 个血液样本中只有 3 个检测到 TTX。因此，确定腹足类动物食物中毒的病原体是 TTX。
