Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
7.5
4.2
Journals
Toxins
Special Issues
Mycotoxin Biomarkers: Innovation and Utility
share announcement

Mycotoxin Biomarkers: Innovation and Utility

A special issue of Toxins (ISSN 2072-6651). This special issue belongs to the section "Mycotoxins".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 August 2022) | Viewed by 13587

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Mark W. Sumarah

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Interests: fungal secondary metabolites; detection and monitoring of mycotoxins; mass spectrometry; NMR; emerging mycotoxins
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. J. David Miller

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The early epidemiology studies of aflatoxin exposure and liver cancer provided conflicting results. By the late 1980s, the need for a biomarker was apparent, notably to understand the attributable risk of disease. The pioneering work by Professors Chris Wild and John Groopman provided useful information on aflatoxin exposure by measuring the aflatoxin–lysine adduct in serum samples. This led to the production of the seminal papers on liver cancer in relation to aflatoxin exposure in Southern China. Reliable biomarkers of exposure for the other agriculturally important mycotoxins, namely fumonisin B1, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone and ochratoxin A, remain a challenge. Barriers include an understanding of the toxicokinetics of these four toxins in humans across a range of exposures and the impact of nutrition on interpreting the data. Further challenges include the availibilty and purity of isotopically labelled standards and improvement in the sensitivity of the analytical methods to allow smaller samples to be collected from study participants.

This Special Issue will explore the progress that has been made in the past and the current state of the art in this important area of research in a variety of contexts.

Dr. Mark W. Sumarah
Prof. Dr. J. David Miller
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxins is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • aflatoxin
  • fumonisin
  • deoxynivalenol
  • zearalenone
  • ochratoxin
  • mycotoxin
  • biomarker

Published Papers (6 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

12 pages, 1551 KiB  
Article
Optimization of Aflatoxin B1-Lysine Analysis for Public Health Exposure Studies
by Justin B Renaud, Jacob P Walsh and Mark W Sumarah
Toxins 2022, 14(10), 672; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/toxins14100672 - 28 Sep 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1705
Abstract
Aflatoxin B1 is a potent human carcinogen produced by several species of Aspergillus mainly found on nuts and maize. Exposures in parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia can be at multiples, sometimes orders of magnitude above tolerable daily levels. Although human [...] Read more.
Aflatoxin B1 is a potent human carcinogen produced by several species of Aspergillus mainly found on nuts and maize. Exposures in parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia can be at multiples, sometimes orders of magnitude above tolerable daily levels. Although human exposure to aflatoxin can be estimated by analysis of the diet, only determination of the serum albumin aflatoxin adduct provides a health-relevant exposure measure. The lack of a reference serum limits interlaboratory method validation and data comparisons. In this study, we synthetically produced AFB1-dialdehyde and covalently coupled it to serum albumin in human serum. This synthetic produced aflatoxin-serum reference material was used in conjunction with isotopically labelled internal standards to evaluate sample digestion methods. This showed using sufficient Pronase in the digestion step was critical to ensure complete proteolytic digestion, which occurs within 4 h. Increasing the digestion temperature from 37 °C to 50 °C also provided a benefit to the overall analysis. In addition, the use of dried blood spots and Volumetric Absorptive Microsampling (VAMS) were investigated showing samples stored with VAMS produced equivalent results to serum samples. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mycotoxin Biomarkers: Innovation and Utility)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

15 pages, 1447 KiB  
Article
Assessing the Impacts of Preanalytical Field Sampling Challenges on the Reliability of Serum Aflatoxin B1-Lysine Measurements by Use of LC-MS/MS
by Nicholas C. Zitomer, Michael E. Rybak and Maya R. Sternberg
Toxins 2022, 14(9), 612; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/toxins14090612 - 01 Sep 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1328
Abstract
Aflatoxin exposure is endemic in developing countries with warm, humid climates that promote toxigenic mold growth on crops and foodstuffs. Estimating human aflatoxin exposure is key to identifying and abating contamination sources. Serum aflatoxin B1 bound to albumin lysine (AFB1-lys) is a preferred [...] Read more.
Aflatoxin exposure is endemic in developing countries with warm, humid climates that promote toxigenic mold growth on crops and foodstuffs. Estimating human aflatoxin exposure is key to identifying and abating contamination sources. Serum aflatoxin B1 bound to albumin lysine (AFB1-lys) is a preferred exposure biomarker, but field sample collection, processing, transportation, and storage logistics are challenging. We validated an improved LC-MS/MS method for serum AFB1-lys and applied it to three field sampling challenges: transportation/storage (elevated temperature); collection/processing (hemolysis); and sample type substitution (heparinized plasma). Our new LC-MS/MS method had a LOD of 0.03 ng/mL, accuracy (mean spike recovery) of 112%, total imprecision (replicate pool measurements) ≤5% at ≥0.2 ng/mL, and results that were 95.1% similar (mean percentage similarity) to an established method. AFB1-lys in human serum spiked with serum from aflatoxin-dosed rats was stable for 14 days at both ambient (22.5 °C) and elevated (38 °C) temperatures. Simulated hemolysis (adding 0.25–3 mg hemoglobin) did not affect AFB1-lys accuracy at ≥0.5 ng/mL but caused 10–25% signal suppression. Heparinized plasma AFB1-lys was 99.0% similar to serum but interfered with albumin measurements (bromocresol green) causing spurious low bias. Further investigation is warranted, but our findings suggest that AFB1-lys is pre-analytically robust. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mycotoxin Biomarkers: Innovation and Utility)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 2557 KiB  
Article
Assessing the Validity of Normalizing Aflatoxin B1-Lysine Albumin Adduct Biomarker Measurements to Total Serum Albumin Concentration across Multiple Human Population Studies
by Joshua W. Smith, Derek K. Ng, Christian S. Alvarez, Patricia A. Egner, Sean M. Burke, Jian-Guo Chen, Thomas W. Kensler, Jill Koshiol, Alvaro Rivera-Andrade, María F. Kroker-Lobos, Manuel Ramírez-Zea, Katherine A. McGlynn and John D. Groopman
Toxins 2022, 14(3), 162; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/toxins14030162 - 23 Feb 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2014
Abstract
The assessment of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) exposure using isotope-dilution liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LCMS) of AFB1-lysine adducts in human serum albumin (HSA) has proven to be a highly productive strategy for the biomonitoring of AFB1 exposure. To compare [...] Read more.
The assessment of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) exposure using isotope-dilution liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LCMS) of AFB1-lysine adducts in human serum albumin (HSA) has proven to be a highly productive strategy for the biomonitoring of AFB1 exposure. To compare samples across different individuals and settings, the conventional practice has involved the normalization of raw AFB1-lysine adduct concentrations (e.g., pg/mL serum or plasma) to the total circulating HSA concentration (e.g., pg/mg HSA). It is hypothesized that this practice corrects for technical error, between-person variance in HSA synthesis or AFB1 metabolism, and other factors. However, the validity of this hypothesis has been largely unexamined by empirical analysis. The objective of this work was to test the concept that HSA normalization of AFB1-lysine adduct concentrations effectively adjusts for biological and technical variance and improves AFB1 internal dose estimates. Using data from AFB1-lysine and HSA measurements in 763 subjects, in combination with regression and Monte Carlo simulation techniques, we found that HSA accounts for essentially none of the between-person variance in HSA-normalized (R2 = 0.04) or raw AFB1-lysine measurements (R2 = 0.0001), and that HSA normalization of AFB1-lysine levels with empirical HSA values does not reduce measurement error any better than does the use of simulated data (n = 20,000). These findings were robust across diverse populations (Guatemala, China, Chile), AFB1 exposures (105 range), HSA assays (dye-binding and immunoassay), and disease states (healthy, gallstones, and gallbladder cancer). HSA normalization results in arithmetic transformation with the addition of technical error from the measurement of HSA. Combined with the added analysis time, cost, and sample consumption, these results suggest that it may be prudent to abandon the practice of normalizing adducts to HSA concentration when measuring any HSA adducts—not only AFB1-lys adducts—when using LCMS in serum/plasma. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mycotoxin Biomarkers: Innovation and Utility)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 3066 KiB  
Article
Simplified Synthesis and Stability Assessment of Aflatoxin B1-Lysine and Aflatoxin G1-Lysine
by Justin B. Renaud, Jacob P. Walsh and Mark W. Sumarah
Toxins 2022, 14(1), 56; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/toxins14010056 - 14 Jan 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2532
Abstract
Aflatoxins B1 (AFB1) and G1 (AFG1) are carcinogenic mycotoxins that contaminate crops such as maize and groundnuts worldwide. The broadly accepted method to assess chronic human aflatoxin exposure is by quantifying the amount of aflatoxin adducted to [...] Read more.
Aflatoxins B1 (AFB1) and G1 (AFG1) are carcinogenic mycotoxins that contaminate crops such as maize and groundnuts worldwide. The broadly accepted method to assess chronic human aflatoxin exposure is by quantifying the amount of aflatoxin adducted to human serum albumin. This has been reported using ELISA, HPLC, or LC-MS/MS to measure the amount of AFB1-lysine released after proteolysis of serum albumin. LC-MS/MS is the most accurate method but requires both isotopically labelled and unlabelled AFB1-lysine standards, which are not commercially available. In this work, we report a simplified synthetic route to produce unlabelled, deuterated and 13C6 15N2 labelled aflatoxin B1-lysine and for the first-time aflatoxin G1-lysine. Additionally, we report on the stability of these compounds during storage. This simplified synthetic approach will make the production of these important standards more feasible for laboratories performing aflatoxin exposure studies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mycotoxin Biomarkers: Innovation and Utility)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

19 pages, 2649 KiB  
Article
Assessment of Dietary Exposure to Ochratoxin A in Lebanese Students and Its Urinary Biomarker Analysis
by Manar Al Ayoubi, Mohammad Salman, Lucia Gambacorta, Nada El Darra and Michele Solfrizzo
Toxins 2021, 13(11), 795; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/toxins13110795 - 10 Nov 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2136
Abstract
The present study investigated the dietary and urinary OTA occurrence among 44 Lebanese children. Relying on HPLC-FLD analysis, OTA was found in all the urine samples and in 46.5% and 25% of the 24 h duplicate diet and dinner samples, respectively. The means [...] Read more.
The present study investigated the dietary and urinary OTA occurrence among 44 Lebanese children. Relying on HPLC-FLD analysis, OTA was found in all the urine samples and in 46.5% and 25% of the 24 h duplicate diet and dinner samples, respectively. The means of OTA levels in positive samples were 0.32 ± 0.1 ng/g in 24 h diet, 0.32 ± 0.18 ng/g in dinner and 0.022 ± 0.012 ng/mL in urines. These values corresponded to margin of exposure (MOE) means of 7907 ± 5922 (neoplastic) and 2579 ± 1932 (non-neoplastic) calculated from positive 24 h diet, while 961 ± 599 (neoplastic) and 313 ± 195 (non-neoplastic) calculated from the urine. Since the MOE levels for the neoplastic effect were below the limit (10,000), a major health threat was detected and must be addressed as a health institutions’ priority. Besides, the wide difference between PDIs and MOEs calculated from food and urine suggests conducting further OTA’s toxicokinetics studies before using urine to measure OTA exposure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mycotoxin Biomarkers: Innovation and Utility)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 2549 KiB  
Article
Volumetric Absorptive Microsampling as an Alternative Tool for Biomonitoring of Multi-Mycotoxin Exposure in Resource-Limited Areas
by Arnau Vidal, Lidia Belova, Christophe Stove, Marthe De Boevre and Sarah De Saeger
Toxins 2021, 13(5), 345; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/toxins13050345 - 11 May 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2923
Abstract
Biomonitoring of biological samples arises as an effective tool to evaluate the exposure to mycotoxins in the population. Owing to the wide range of advantages, there is a growing interest in the use of non- and minimally invasive alternative sampling strategies, such as [...] Read more.
Biomonitoring of biological samples arises as an effective tool to evaluate the exposure to mycotoxins in the population. Owing to the wide range of advantages, there is a growing interest in the use of non- and minimally invasive alternative sampling strategies, such as dried blood spot sampling or volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS). A VAMS-based multi-mycotoxin method was developed and validated for 24 different mycotoxins. Method validation was based on the Bioanalytical Method Validation Guideline of the Food and Drug Administration from the United States and for most of the studied mycotoxins, the results of the performance characteristics were in agreement with the criteria of the European Commission Decision 2002/657/EC. The recovery for the different mycotoxins was not haematocrit dependent and remained acceptable after storing the VAMS for 7 and 21 days at refrigeration temperature (4 °C) and room temperature, demonstrating that VAMS could be applied to assess mycotoxin exposure in blood in resource-limited areas, where there may be a delay between sampling and analysis. Finally, a comparison between VAMS and a procedure for liquid whole blood analysis, performed on 20 different blood samples, did not result in missed exposed cases for VAMS. Moreover, both methods detected similar levels of ochratoxin A, ochratoxin alpha, zearalenone and aflatoxin B1. Given all the benefits associated with VAMS and the developed method, VAMS sampling may serve as an alternative to conventional venous sampling to evaluate multiple mycotoxin exposure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mycotoxin Biomarkers: Innovation and Utility)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-6
Back to TopTop