Liquid Chromatography Coupled to High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry for the Confirmation of Caribbean Ciguatoxin-1 as the Main Toxin Responsible for Ciguatera Poisoning Caused by Fish from European Atlantic Coasts

• Published in: Toxins
• Main Authors: Pablo Estevez, Manoella Sibat, José Manuel Leão-Martins, Pedro Reis Costa, Ana Gago-Martínez, Philipp Hess
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020
• Subjects: ciguatoxins; HRMS; Q-TOF; ciguatera poisoning; C-CTX1; fragmentation pathways; Medicine; R; Northeast Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins12040267; https://doaj.org/article/41a3d7d81c1e4b45acb05f69a2f3cc98

Ciguatera poisoning (CP) is a common seafood intoxication mainly caused by the consumption of fish contaminated by ciguatoxins. Recent studies showed that Caribbean ciguatoxin-1 (C-CTX1) is the main toxin causing CP through fish caught in the Northeast Atlantic, e.g., Canary Islands (Spain) and Madeira (Portugal). The use of liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) combined with neuroblastoma cell assay (N2a) allowed the initial confirmation of the presence of C-CTX1 in contaminated fish samples from the abovementioned areas, nevertheless the lack of commercially available reference materials for these particular ciguatoxin (CTX) analogues has been a major limitation to progress research. The EuroCigua project allowed the preparation of C-CTX1 laboratory reference material (LRM) from fish species ( Seriola fasciata ) from the Madeira archipelago (Portugal). This reference material was used to implement a liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) for the detection of C-CTX1, acquisition of full-scan as well as collision-induced mass spectra of this particular analogue. Fragmentation pathways were proposed based on fragments obtained. The optimized LC-HRMS method was then applied to confirm C-CTX1 in fish ( Bodianus scrofa ) caught in the Selvagens Islands (Portugal).