Greater Caribbean Center for Ciguatera Research

雪卡特拉鱼中毒(CFP)是全球最常见的由藻毒素引起的海鲜疾病， 每年影响数以万计的人。CFP是由食用海鲜(主要是珊瑚礁)引起的 鱼)被雪卡毒素污染。冈比亚毒素，(亚热带)产生的雪卡毒素的前体 底栖甲藻属冈比亚，当食草动物和食害性动物进食时，进入珊瑚礁食物网 直接或间接以大型藻类为食的冈比亚。这些前体分子被转移到 通过生物积累、生物转化和生物放大达到更高的营养水平，直到到达捕食性鱼类 许多商业和休闲渔业的目标物种。当人们随后消费时 被污染的鱼，它们暴露在毒素中，从而经历CFP。从历史上看，CFP疫情 与温暖的海水温度和珊瑚礁的影响有关，这两个因素预计都将增加 在气候变化的背景下。因此，预计CFP将在地理和时间尺度上增加。 例如，虽然CFP是加勒比海、佛罗里达群岛和南佛罗里达的地方性疾病，但CFP似乎 正在向北扩展到墨西哥湾，最近在花卉中发现了有毒的鱼 德克萨斯州/路易斯安那州海岸外的花园海洋保护区。雪卡毒素是一种新型的电压门控离子 渠道毒素。在神经组织中，雪卡毒素引起河豚毒素敏感的钠离子通透性增加。 静息膜的去极化。根据去极化的大小， 结果可能是神经元膜的兴奋性增加或去极化类型的传导 在高浓度的情况下被阻断。CFP的发病以胃肠道和神经系统为典型特征。 症状和体征通常持续数天至数周，伴有呕吐、腹泻、恶心、腹痛、 感觉障碍、瘙痒、肌痛是常见的。严重的雪卡特拉病例可能涉及低血压和 心动过缓，但死亡人数很少。偶尔，神经症状可能会持续几个月。值得注意的是， 雪卡特拉的诊断在很大程度上仍取决于临床医生的敏锐程度。在缺少 验证性实验室检测表明，仍有相当大比例的病例没有得到诊断和报告。神秘的 CFP事件的性质，加上缺乏对环境和生理的持续科学研究 导致暴发的因素，阻碍了制定管理战略的进展，以 保护人们免受雪卡毒素的影响。因此，这个项目的目的是建立一个更大的 加勒比雪卡特拉研究中心将研究气候变化在地理和气候变化中可能发挥的作用 CFP的时间扩展到更温和的纬度；2)更好地了解有毒物质 某些冈比亚菌株产生的代谢物，以及随后的转移和生物转化 这些化合物进入海岸/珊瑚礁食物网；以及3)研究遗传毒性和对细胞新陈代谢的影响 由这些毒素在暴露时引起的。

Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) is the most common form of phycotoxin-borne seafood illness across the globe, affecting tens of thousands of people annually. CFP is caused by the consumption of seafood (primarily reef fish) contaminated with ciguatoxins. Gambiertoxins, precursors of ciguatoxins produced by the (sub)tropical benthic dinoflagellate genus Gambierdiscus, enter reef food webs when herbivores and detritivores consume Gambierdiscus directly or indirectly by grazing on macroalgae. These precursor molecules are transferred to higher trophic levels by bioaccumulation, bioconversion and biomagnification until they reach predatory finfish species that are targeted in many commercial and recreational fisheries. When people subsequently consume the contaminated fish, they are exposed to the toxins, thereby experiencing CFP. Historically, CFP outbreaks have been linked with warm water temperatures and coral reef impacts, both of which are expected to increase in the setting of climate change. Consequently, CFP is predicted to increase on geographic and temporal scales. For example, although CFP is endemic to the Caribbean, the Florida Keys, and South Florida, CFP appears to be expanding northwards into the Gulf of Mexico, highlighted by the recent identification of toxic fish in the Flower Garden Marine Sanctuary off of the Texas/Louisiana coast. Ciguatoxin is a novel type of voltage-gated ion channel toxin. In nerve tissues, ciguatoxin causes a tetrodotoxin-sensitive increase in sodium ion permeability and depolarization of the resting membrane. Depending on the magnitude of the depolarization, the consequence can be an increase in excitability of the neuronal membrane or a depolarizing type of conduction block at high concentrations. The onset of CFP is typically characterized by gastrointestinal and neurological symptoms and signs typically persist for days to weeks, with vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, abdominal pain, dysesthesia, pruritus, myalgia being common. Severe cases of ciguatera may involve hypotension and bradycardia, but fatalities are rare. Occasionally, neurological signs may persist for several months. Remarkably, the diagnosis of ciguatera is still largely dependent on the astuteness of the clinician. In the absence of a confirmatory laboratory test, a sizable proportion of cases still go undiagnosed and unreported. The enigmatic nature of CFP events, coupled with a lack of sustained scientific research on the environmental and physiological factors that contribute to outbreaks, has hindered progress in the development of management strategies to protect people against exposure to ciguatoxins. The purpose of this project, therefore, is to establish a Greater Caribbean Center for Ciguatera Research to 1) examine the role climate change may play in the geographic and temporal expansion of CFP into more temperate latitudes; 2) obtain a better understanding of the toxic metabolites produced by certain Gambierdiscus strains, and the subsequent transfer and biotransformation of these compounds into coastal/reef food webs; and 3) study the genotoxicity and impacts on cellular metabolism caused by these toxins upon exposure.