Sea urchin: toxinology, bioactive compounds and its treatment management

The sea urchins are classified in the echinoderms category because of their spiny skin. Saponins are the major responsible metabolites for Echinodermata biological activities . As mentioned before, about 80 species of sea urchins are venomous for human. Their spine, pedicellariae, and some other organs such as gonads and coelomic fluids contain different toxins and bioactive compounds. This review study have evaluated toxinology and bioactive compounds from the extracts, and treatment management of these venomous animals.
Contractin A, echinochrome A, echinometrin, major yolk protein (MYP), centrocins (I, II(, cathepsin B/X, strongylostatins (I,II), vitellogenin, UT841 toxin, spinochrome, and pedoxin as the prosthetic group of peditoxin are the most important compounds obtained from these animals.
Some people show poisoning symptoms following the ingestion of sea urchin gonads, especially during the breeding season. Some of these symptoms included allergies symptoms, as the first symptoms, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, epigastric distress, severe headache, swelling of the lips and mouth, salivation, abdominal pain and some systemic symptoms such as hypotension, numbness and weakness. The most injuries by sea urchin can cause by contact to spines, which can create the various complications such as granuloma, synovitis, arthritis, edema, hyperkeratosis and even neuroma. Injuries by pedicellaria may cause severe pain, local edema, bleeding, lethargy, weakness, tingling, joint pain, aphonia, dizziness, syncope, general muscle paralysis, respiratory distress, hypotension and, infrequently death. After the injury by sea urchin, removing the spines and pedicellariae should be done to minimize the contact with the venom source, and subsequently the management of wounds and poisoning symptoms, as quickly as possible.
The venoms of some sea urchins have toxins and bioactive molecules that produce toxicity effects on their victims by a variety of mechanisms. Despite the various studies in toxinology field, on these animals, the comprehensive studies that led to the identification of pure toxins from their crude venoms are handful and unfinished and it is important to do further studies on this field, in the future.