In the last decade, the occurrence of harmful Ostreopsis cf. ovata blooms has increased both in frequency and in geographic distribution. This resulted in adverse impacts on public health and the economy and has become a global concern. Until now, the data required for the evaluation of real toxicological hazard related to naturally occurring phenomena, such as algal blooms, require time and resources. Existing data are mainly derived on in vivo mouse assay and are related to acute effects of palytoxin without considering that the toxicity of the dinoflagellates is due to a mixture of biotoxins whose composition is not only strongly species dependent, but may also differ according to region of occurrence, specific environmental conditions and biological cycles. In this study, we investigated for the first time the effect of cultured O. cf. ovata cells and their naturally released toxins mixture in the growth medium on rat cortical neuronal networks grown on multi-electrode arrays (MEA). By means of the multiparametric analysis of neuronal network activity, the approach revealed different toxicological characteristics of the cellular component and the algal conditioned growth medium, highlighting the higher toxic potential of the first treatment. Overall, the high sensitivity, the rapidity and the throughput make MEA-based method a valuable tool to be used to facilitate the toxicity evaluation of marine toxic algae in due time and at regulatory levels

Assessing the neurotoxic effects of Ostreopsis cf. ovata by using microelettrode array based platform

GIUSSANI, VALENTINA;ASNAGHI, VALENTINA;CHIANTORE, MARIACHIARA;
2014-01-01

Abstract

In the last decade, the occurrence of harmful Ostreopsis cf. ovata blooms has increased both in frequency and in geographic distribution. This resulted in adverse impacts on public health and the economy and has become a global concern. Until now, the data required for the evaluation of real toxicological hazard related to naturally occurring phenomena, such as algal blooms, require time and resources. Existing data are mainly derived on in vivo mouse assay and are related to acute effects of palytoxin without considering that the toxicity of the dinoflagellates is due to a mixture of biotoxins whose composition is not only strongly species dependent, but may also differ according to region of occurrence, specific environmental conditions and biological cycles. In this study, we investigated for the first time the effect of cultured O. cf. ovata cells and their naturally released toxins mixture in the growth medium on rat cortical neuronal networks grown on multi-electrode arrays (MEA). By means of the multiparametric analysis of neuronal network activity, the approach revealed different toxicological characteristics of the cellular component and the algal conditioned growth medium, highlighting the higher toxic potential of the first treatment. Overall, the high sensitivity, the rapidity and the throughput make MEA-based method a valuable tool to be used to facilitate the toxicity evaluation of marine toxic algae in due time and at regulatory levels
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11567/809707
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