ABSTRACT
This chapter provides state-of-the-art overviews on foodborne diseases caused by Tetrodotoxin (TTX) in relation to their etiology, biology, epidemiology, clinical presentation, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. TTX is an extremely toxic marine neurotoxin naturally present in certain marine and terrestrial species. TTX is a nonprotein heat-stable and water-soluble low molecular weight neurotoxin. There is uncertainty about the biosynthesis or biological origin of TTX as well as its ecological function. It is supposed that arginine is the precursor moiety for TTX production within organism. TTX-producing bacteria result in an attractive method to obtain this toxin, although maintaining its productive properties for long periods is a difficult task. TTX has been described as one of the toxic compounds among the poisons having low molecular weight. Several research groups have described the mechanism of TTX toxicity in different animal models. Several methods for determination of TTX have been published; in spite of that, most of them are adequate to analyze food tissue samples.
