Monitoring of freshwater toxins in European environmental waters by using novel multi‐detection methods

Abstract

Monitoring the quality of freshwater is an important issue for public health. In the context of the European project μAqua, 150 samples were collected from several waters in France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Turkey for 2 yr. These samples were analyzed using 2 multitoxin detection methods previously developed: a microsphere-based method coupled to flow-cytometry, and an ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method. The presence of microcystins, nodularin, domoic acid, cylindrospermopsin, and several analogues of anatoxin-a (ATX-a) was monitored. No traces of cylindrospermopsin or domoic acid were found in any of the environmental samples. Microcystin-LR and microcystin-RR were detected in 2 samples from Turkey and Germany. In the case of ATX-a derivatives, 75% of samples contained mainly H2 -ATX-a and small amounts of H2 -homoanatoxin-a, whereas ATX-a and homoanatoxin-a were found in only 1 sample. These results confirm the presence and wide distribution of dihydro derivatives of ATX-a toxins in European freshwaters. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:645-654. © 2016 SETAC

New Molecular Tools: Application of the Μaqua Phylochip and Concomitant Fish Probes to Study Freshwater Pathogens From Samples Taken Along the Tiber River, Italy

“…Although our microarray has detected the presence of toxic cyanobacterial species, no toxin analysis was performed. In a study of cyanobacterial toxins associated with AQUA samples, good correlation between toxins and species identified by the microarray was obtained [17], confirming toxins were retained by the hollow fibre filters. In AQUA, we developed a reverse transcriptase probes extension for toxin genes direct on the microarray to detect toxin potential of any population (see [5]).…”

Neurotoxic Anatoxin-a Can Also Exert Immunotoxicity by the Induction of Apoptosis on Carassius auratus Lymphocytes in vitro When Exposed to Environmentally Relevant Concentrations

“…Dog and cattle poisonings related to ANTX-a were reported in six places in Canada between 1961and 1975(Trainer and Hardy, 2015. ANTXa is becoming increasingly recognized as a potential risk to both animal and human health, which has been incorporated into laws and regulations regarding the water security of several countries (Rodriguez et al, 2017). In 2015, the U.S. government passed an amendment to the "Drinking Water Protection Act" (PL 114-45) that requires the implementation of the best available technology to assess the risks to human health of public water polluted by cyanotoxins such as ANTX-a (Metcalf et al, 2018).…”

New Method for Simultaneous Determination of Microcystins and Cylindrospermopsin in Vegetable Matrices by SPE-UPLC-MS/MS

“…Eutrophication and climate change may promote the proliferation and expansion of harmful cyanobacterial blooms in freshwater, estuarine, and marine ecosystems [ 1 ]. An increasing number of cyanobacteria can produce toxic metabolites named cyanotoxins [ 2 ], which comprise a large variety of compounds with various structural and physicochemical properties [ 3 ]. Among these cyanotoxins, microcystins (MCs) and cylindrospermopsin (CYN) are amongst the most studied because of their widespread distribution.…”

“…Therefore, a multitoxin analytical approach is necessary for the simultaneous screening, detection, identification, and quantification of these toxins at low concentration levels [ 3 ], and in complex matrices, such as food items, following the recommendations of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) [ 41 ]. Different analytical methods for the simultaneous determination of cyanotoxins in waters are available, with [ 3 , 13 , 33 , 42 , 43 ] or without SPE [ 2 , 34 , 44 , 45 ]. By contrast, studies carried out to determine cyanotoxins simultaneously in vegetables are scarcer, and have not been validated.…”