Domoic acid and amnesic shellfish poisoning in public health

Abstract

Domoic acid is a sea biotoxin that was first identified to produce food poisoning in more than a hundred people in Canada, in 1987, with some deaths reported, after intake of contaminated mussels. As part of the clinical presentation, anterograde amnesia is highlighted. As it had not been seen before with any know biotoxin or drug, and could be permanent, the syndrome was called “amnesic poisoning due to shellfish”. In the histopathological examination of the brain of the dead patients, the hippocampus was one of the most affected, showing cellular necrosis in some areas, which explains the irreversible deterioration of the memory. Many shellfish species, filtrating fish, krill and marine animals can get contaminated by the biotoxin , which is produced by microscopic algae, which are often responsible of the “red tides”. The biotoxin can reach the human being through the food chain. In this article, we revise the toxic outbreaks in mammals and marine birds, causing death due to domoic acid, the mechanism of toxicity production, its agonism in the glutamatergic receptors, its importance in public health, the risk they pose to human health and ought to be evaluated, and the diffusion of the biotoxin throughout the world, including the Pacific Ocean and the possible reasons of this diffusion, as well as its ecologic and economic importance, which has made it surveillance compulsory in all the world.