Ionspray mass spectrometry of marine toxins. III. Analysis of paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins by flow-injection analysis, liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry and capillary electrophoresis/mass spectrometry.

Ionspray mass spectrometry has been used to monitor the purification of saxitoxin, the parent compound in the family of toxins responsible for paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP), from a strain of the dinoflagellate Alexandrium excavatum. Quantitative results obtained by flow-injection analysis are compared to those obtained by high-performance liquid chromatography with post-column oxidation and fluorescence detection. The coupling of liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis with ionspray mass spectrometry is described for the separation of mixtures of PSP toxins and the highly potent pufferfish toxin tetrodotoxin. Tandem mass spectrometry is used to provide the structural information, and the ability to distinguish isomeric PSP toxins both chromatographically and mass spectrometrically is demonstrated.