Nouvelle stratégie de caractérisation non ciblée de type métabolomique au service de l’identification de composés bioactifs accumulés dans les mollusques bivalves

The bioactivity of phytoplankton toxins that accumulate in shellfish is almost always tested on animal model (mice assay). In spite of these advantages, the ability of this test to explain the nature of the bioactivity remains limited. Besides, the current sanitary control based on targeted methods of identification and quantification (LC-MS/MS) of known toxins, do not permit to detect unknown toxins. In order to cope with this need of identification of unknown toxic substances, a next approach based on global and differential metabolomic profiling was proposed. The first results obtained from extracts that have shown a positive toxicity in mice without the substances potentially responsible for these toxic effects have been measured by targeted methods, clearly open new perspectives regarding this atypical toxicity issue. This concept allows identifying a biological signature associated with this toxicity and shows the interest of characterizing biomarkers, which are potential candidates for the establishment of a new control strategy. Validity and robustness of this approach have now to be confirmed at a larger scale.