Finding Biomarkers in Antioxidant Molecular Mechanisms for Ensuring Food Safety of Bivalves Threatened by Marine Pollution

Abstract

Aquaculture production as an important source of protein for our diet is sure to continue in the coming years. However, marine pollution will also likely give rise to serious problems for the food safety of molluscs. Seafood is widely recognized for its high nutritional value in our diet, leading to major health benefits. However, the threat of marine pollution including heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants and other emerging pollutants is of ever-growing importance and seafood safety may not be guaranteed. New approaches for the search of biomarkers would help us to monitor pollutants and move towards a more global point of view; protocols for the aquaculture industry would also be improved. Rapid and accurate detection of food safety problems in bivalves could be carried out easily by protein biomarkers. Hence, proteomic technologies could be considered as a useful tool for the discovery of protein biomarkers as a first step to improve the protocols of seafood safety. It has been demonstrated that marine pollutants are altering the bivalve proteome, affecting many biological processes and molecular functions. The main response mechanism of bivalves in a polluted marine environment is based on the antioxidant defense system against oxidative stress. All these proteomic data provided from the literature suggest that alterations in oxidative stress due to marine pollution are closely linked to robust and confident biomarkers for seafood safety.

Do Freshwater and Marine Bivalves Differ in Their Response to Wildfire Ash? Effects on the Antioxidant Defense System and Metal Body Burden

“…As both species are consumed by humans [20,25], the results of the present study are relevant not only in terms of environmental but also human health. Indeed, the consumption of bivalves contaminated with metals (namely As, Cr, Cd, Pb, and Hg) has been associated with mutagenic, carcinogenic, and genotoxic effects on human health [27]. To prevent such a risk for the population, international organizations like EFSA and FSANZ established maximum levels (MLs) of metal concentrations, above which edible seafood, including bivalves, cannot be sold for human consumption [27].…”

Assessment on Oxidative Stress in Animals: From Experimental Models to Animal Production

“…Therefore, studies into understanding new factors in their immune systems may aid new biomarker discovery and are of considerable value. In general, these studies were focused on ecotoxicological aspects in mussels such as Mediterranean mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis), Atlantic ribbed Mussel (Geukensia demissa), Rooved carpet shell Ruditapes decussatus, Blue mussel (Mytilus edulis), Soft Shell Clam (Mya arenaria), Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea virginica), and Atlantic Jackknife Clam (Ensis leei) among others [56][57][58]. Aquatic and terrestrial mollusks are exposed to metallic polluted water and substrates with contaminants show a reduction of lower rates of reduced glutathione (GSH) when lived in a water or substrate deliberately contaminated with copper and zinc [59].…”

Fundamental understanding of the size and surface modification effects on r1, the relaxivity of Prussian blue nanocube@m-SiO2: a novel targeted chemo-photodynamic theranostic agent to treat colon cancer

“…11 In this context, it may be stated that mostly Gd 3+ based chelating agents, namely DOTAREM® and MAGNEVIST®, are nowadays used at a dose of 10 to 20 mL of 0.5 mM solution depending on the body weight; besides, it also has serious side effects such as gadolinium toxicity and nephrogenic systemic brosis. 12,13 Herein, the current research effort focuses on improving the effectiveness of CA in order to be able to reduce the dose of administration of CA with very mild side effects. Concerning, PB, which is being used as the sole U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved T 1 -weighted CA for MRI has the advantage of a high signal-to-noise ratio, fast scanning, bright eld image, etc.…”