Centro de Investigacions Mariñas (CIMA), Xunta de Galicia, Pedras de Coron s/n, Vilanova de Arousa, 36620 Pontevedra, Spain.
Toxins (Basel). 2022 Mar 16;14(3):216. doi: 10.3390/toxins14030216.
The cockle is a commercially important species in many European Countries. It can accumulate okadaic acid (OA) and other toxins in its group, which makes it unsuitable for human consumption, producing harvesting bans to avoid intoxications. The duration of those bans depends in part on the depuration kinetics of the toxin in this species. In this work, this kinetics was studied by means of fitting different models to depuration data experimentally obtained, using naturally contaminated cockles. Cockles depurated OA faster than most other bivalve species studied. Models that include Michaelis-Menten kinetics describe the depuration better than those using a first order exponential decrease to describe the first (or the only) compartment. One-compartment models were not able to describe the final part of the depuration curve, in which OA was depurated very slowly. Therefore, two-compartment models were needed. Esters were depurated at a much faster rate than the free form of the toxin; however, no significant esterification was detected during the process. The slow depuration rate suggests that other bivalve species could be used as sentinels to monitor cockle populations, but caution should be taken when toxin concentrations are very high.
海扇蛤在许多欧洲国家都是一种具有商业重要性的物种。它可以在其群体中积累 okadaic 酸（OA）和其他毒素，这使得它不适合人类食用，因此需要进行捕捞禁令以避免中毒。这些禁令的持续时间部分取决于该物种中毒素的净化动力学。在这项工作中，通过使用自然污染的海扇蛤，通过将不同的模型拟合到实验获得的净化数据来研究这种动力学。海扇蛤净化 OA 的速度比研究过的大多数其他双壳类物种都要快。与使用一阶指数衰减来描述第一个（或唯一）隔室相比，包含米氏动力学的模型能更好地描述净化过程。单隔室模型无法描述净化曲线的最后一部分，在这部分中，OA 的净化速度非常缓慢。因此，需要使用双隔室模型。酯的净化速度比毒素的游离形式快得多；然而，在这个过程中没有检测到明显的酯化作用。缓慢的净化速度表明，其他双壳类物种可以用作监测海扇蛤种群的哨兵，但当毒素浓度非常高时应谨慎对待。
