Improvements in the use of neuroblastoma x glioma hybrid cells (NG108-15) for the toxic effect quantification of marine toxins

New advances in the use of NG108-15 cells for marine toxins detection and quantification are presented. We have established modifications on ouabain and veratridine proportion to obtain good toxins dose-response curves on this cell line for neurotoxins acting on voltage gated sodium channel (VGSC). Interesting, differences in the toxic response were observed between two VGSC activating toxins, brevetoxin-3 and pacific ciguatoxin-1. For non-VGSC acting lipophilic toxins, several factors that may influence toxin detection and quantification were analyzed. One hour cultures and forty-eight hours of exposure time, compared with 24 h of culture and 24 h of exposure, would increase NG108-15 cell maximal yessotoxin (YTX) and azaspiracid-1 (AZA-1) toxic response whereas no change was observed for okadaic acid (OA), dinophysistoxin-1 and pectenotoxin-2. Dose-response curves obtained for YTX or AZA-1 showed variability according to the day of the experiment while good reproducibility was obtained for OA. Evaporation time of toxin solutions before cell exposure could be an important source of variability in AZA-1 toxic response evaluation.