Description

The chemical substances known as mycotoxins are harmful to humans and are produced by a variety of fungal species. Since mycotoxins are found everywhere in nature, it's possible for humans to be exposed to multiple mycotoxins at once. Unfortunately, not much research has been done on exposure to mixed mycotoxins. Mycotoxins have been shown in a number of studies to have the ability to work together to cause toxicity when other mycotoxins are present. As a result, it is essential to keep an eye on mixed mycotoxins in biological samples taken from human beings, as this data would be essential for determining the level of risk. The purpose of this review paper is to provide a summary of the various bio-analytical methods used to simultaneously analyze mixed mycotoxins in human biological samples and the mixture toxicity of mycotoxins. Also discussed are various sample preparation and clean-up methods that have been used to remove interferences from human biological samples without affecting mycotoxins' analyses. In addition, a brief description of the risk assessment methods that have been used or could be used for a variety of mycotoxin risk assessments is included. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first review to concentrate solely on the risk assessment strategies for multiple mycotoxins found in human biological samples.

Impact of Aflatoxin on Human and Animal Health

Aflatoxin, the first known mycotoxin, was discovered in 1960 after moldy peanut meal caused the deaths of more than 100,000 turkeys in the United Kingdom. The fungi Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus produce aflatoxin and harms cottonseed, tree nuts like almonds and pistachios, and corn. The World Health Organization considers "naturally occurring mixes of aflatoxins" to be a group-1 human carcinogen, meaning that there is abundant evidence to suggest that aflatoxin contributes to cancer in humans. Over a thousand people die each year from liver cancer as a result of aflatoxin, most of who live in low- and middle-income countries where corn and peanuts are staple foods. Additionally, despite the extremely low risk of AFM1 causing cancer in humans, dairy animals that consume aflatoxin B1 in their feed produce a metabolite known as aflatoxin M1 in their milk. Aflatoxin can also cause immune dysfunction, impairment in child growth, and acute liver failure in animals and humans at high doses 1, 5, 6. In the United States, aflatoxin is restricted in human, pet, and animal feed.  As a result, it has less of an impact on human and animal health and more to do with food waste issues that can result in significant financial losses. The Food and Drug Administration of the United States has established a 20 g/kg action level for the amount of aflatoxin that is permissible in human food. While this action level ensures food safety for consumers in the United States, corn growers in the United States suffer financial losses if their crops exceed this limit. After that, it is either discarded as food waste or sold at a discount as animal feed. This has been a problem in years like 2012, when hot and dry summers increased aflatoxin risk throughout the Corn Belt, led to food waste losses for corn farmers, and docked grain elevator prices exceeded $1 billion USD. Pathogenic fungi infection or contamination has long been a problem that has resulted in fungal diseases, food spoilage, and financial losses. It is also to blame for mycotoxin contamination, a major threat to food safety and security because of the negative effects it has on health and the economy. For fungi and mycotoxins, the best preventative management methods have been sought. Some food nutraceuticals, prebiotics, and probiotics, as well as their combinations based on new technologies, demonstrate prevention functions and increasingly significant applications as promising alternatives in this review. It is necessary to conduct a lot of research on the molecular mechanisms of antifungal, detoxification, and antimycotoxicosis. This is very important for the integrated management of fungi and mycotoxins, especially for making food safe for mycotoxins.

Pure Spectra of a Specific Fluorophore

For ultra-sensitive multi-target mycotoxin analysis in food, a multi-functional nanoflare biosensor of spherical gold nanoparticle modified by fluorophore-labeled oligonucleotides was developed. Multiplex highly oriented hairpins of oligonucleotides were used to densely modify Au NP. Each ONS was hybridized to a reporter with a distinct fluorophore label that was specifically associated with the mycotoxin target it matched. On the basis of ONS hairpin structures, Au NP pre-quenched reporter fluorescent signals, which were then recovered upon exposure to ONS targets. In EX and EM wavelengths of 200–800 nm, Excitation-Emission Matrix fluorescence detection was carried out. The alternative trilinear decomposition algorithm was used to resolve the overlapping spectra of fluorophores, mycotoxins, and backgrounds. Pure spectra of a specific fluorophore that responds to a mycotoxin target can be extracted for quantitative analysis. Four mycotoxins—Aflatoxin B1, zearalenone, Fumonisins B1, and Ochratoxin A—were simultaneously measured at a very low level with a limit of detection of less than 0.02 g kg 1, and the average recovery accuracy was greater than 91.7 percent across a variety of cereal, nut, and edible oil matrices. This study discovered a significant advancement in the use of nanoflare biosensors and may hold promise as an alternative strategy for onsite food mycotoxins monitoring. The production of mycotoxins and the subsequent contamination of agricultural products caused by filamentous fungi are two of the many metabolic pathways that filamentous fungi use. Both humans and animals suffer severe health consequences as a result. It is essential to have an understanding of the biology, ecology, and genetics of mycotoxin biosynthesis in order to stop its spread in food and feed products and reduce the risk to the health of humans and animals. The majority of the gene clusters that are in charge of the biosynthesis of mycotoxins that are important to agriculture, such as aflatoxins, fumonisins, ochratoxins, patulin, citrinin, and trichothecenes, have been identified and characterized. However, numerous new studies on the structural, regulatory, and epigenetic mechanisms underlying mycotoxin biosynthesis have recently been published due to the complex organization of fungal secondary metabolisms and interaction with biotic, climatic, and environmental factors. This summary provides an overview of the most recent breakthroughs in our comprehension of the genes, molecular mechanisms, and factors that regulate the principal mycotoxins' biosynthesis.