RT Journal Article
T1 Oral Chronic Toxicity of the Safe Tetrodotoxin Dose Proposed by the European Food Safety Authority and Its Additive Effect with Saxitoxin
A1 Boente Juncal, Andrea
A1 Otero Fuertes, María Paz
A1 Rodríguez Filgueiras, Inés
A1 Camiña García, María Mercedes
A1 Rodríguez Vieytes, Mercedes
A1 Vale González, María del Carmen
A1 Botana López, Luis Miguel
K1 Tetrodotoxin
K1 Saxitoxin
K1 Risk assessment
K1 Oral chronic toxicity
K1 Mollusk
AB Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is a potent natural toxin causative of human food intoxications that shares its mechanism of action with the paralytic shellfish toxin saxitoxin (STX). Both toxins act as potent blockers of voltage-gated sodium channels. Although human intoxications by TTX were initially described in Japan, nowadays increasing concern about the regulation of this toxin in Europe has emerged due to its detection in fish and mollusks captured in European waters. Currently, TTX is only regularly monitored in Dutch fishery products. However, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has established a safety level of 44 µg/kg TTX as the amount of toxin that did not cause adverse effects in humans. This level was extrapolated considering initial data on its acute oral toxicity and EFSA remarked the need for chronic toxicity studies to further reduce the uncertainty of future toxin regulations. Thus, in this work, we evaluated the oral chronic toxicity of TTX using the safety levels initially recommended by EFSA in order to exclude potential human health risks associated with the worldwide expanding presence of TTX. Using internationally recommended guidelines for the assessment of oral chronic toxicity, the data provided here support the proposed safety level for TTX as low enough to prevent human adverse effects of TTX even after chronic daily exposure to the toxin. However, the combination of TTX with STX at doses above the maximal exposure level of 5.3 µg/kg body weight derived by EFSA increased the lethality of TTX, thus confirming that both TTX and paralytic shellfish toxins should be taken into account to assess human health risks
PB MDPI
YR 2020
FD 2020
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/23584
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/23584
LA eng
NO Boente-Juncal, A.; Otero, P.; Rodríguez, I.; Camiña, M.; Rodriguez-Vieytes, M.; Vale, C.; Botana, L.M. Oral Chronic Toxicity of the Safe Tetrodotoxin Dose Proposed by the European Food Safety Authority and Its Additive Effect with Saxitoxin. Toxins 2020, 12, 312
NO The research leading to these results has received funding from the following European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) cofunded grants. From Conselleria de Cultura, Educacion e Ordenación Universitaria, Xunta de Galicia, 2017 GRC GI-1682 (ED431C 2017/01). From the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) and Technological Funds, supported by Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, (AEI/FEDER, UE), ISCIII/PI16/01830 and RTC-2016-5507-2, ITC-20161072
DS Minerva
RD 25 abr 2026