Research Publications (Food Safety)

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), a potent food-borne hepatocarcinogen, is the most toxic aflatoxin that induces liver injury in humans and animals. Species-specific sensitivities of aflatoxins cannot be fully explained by differences in the metabolism of AFB1 between animal species. The gut microbiota are critical in inflammatory liver injury, but it remains to reveal the role of gut microbiota in AFB1-induced liver injury. Here, mice were gavaged with AFB1 for 28 days.

The peanut plant accumulates defensive stilbenoid phytoalexins in response to the presence of soil fungi, which in turn produce phytoalexin-detoxifying enzymes for successfully invading the plant host. Aspergillus spp. are opportunistic pathogens that invade peanut seeds; most common fungal species often produce highly carcinogenic aflatoxins.

Aspergillus flavus is saprophytic soil fungus that contaminates seed crops with the carcinogenic secondary metabolite aflatoxin, posing a significant threat to humans and animals. Ferrous sulfate is a common iron supplement that is used to the treatment of iron-deficiency anemia. Here, we identified an unexpected inhibitory role of ferrous sulfate on A. flavus.

A novel multiplex mycotoxin surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) immunoassay was established for the first time on different artificial antigen-modified silica photonic crystal microspheres (SPCMs), which can be integrated into a biochip array to achieve multiplex detection using corresponding antibody-functionalized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) as the SERS nanotag.

The objective of the present study was to investigate the bioavailability of aflatoxins (AFs) from fish, and chicken and rabbit livers using an in vitro dialyzability approach. Ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) was used to assess the aflatoxin content in samples, as well as in dialyzate and residue fractions after the in vitro procedure.

Two simple and low-cost QuEChERS approaches were optimized and validated for multimycotoxin determination in grains by UPLC–MS/MS and applied to assess effectiveness of controlled atmosphere (CA) storage in preventing mycotoxin contamination. Common bean, soybean, and maize samples were stored for 6 months. CA treatments were conducted varying O2 and CO2 partial pressures, temperatures, and moisture contents of the chambers.

A new protein microarray method for multiplex mycotoxin detection in parallel has been established on a stable TiO2-modified porous silicon (PSi) surface. A typical competitive immunoassay microarray protocol has been developed for simultaneous detection of multiplex mycotoxins including aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), ochratoxin A (OTA), and fumonisin B1 (FB1) on the TiO2-PSi surface.

Common soil fungi, Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus, are opportunistic pathogens that invade preharvest peanut seeds. These fungi often produce carcinogenic aflatoxins that pose a threat to human and animal health through food chains and cause significant economic losses worldwide. Detection of aflatoxins and further processing of crops are mandated to ensure that contaminated agricultural products do not enter food channels.

Nanoluciferase (Nluc), the smallest luciferase known, was used as the fusion partner with a nanobody against aflatoxin B1 to develop a bioluminescent enzyme immunoassay (BLEIA) for detection of the aflatoxin B1 in cereal. Nanobody (clone G8) against aflatoxin B1 was fused with nanoluciferase and cloned into a pET22b expression vector, and then transformed into Escherichia coli.

Conventional methods for detecting aflatoxigenic fungus and aflatoxin contamination are generally time-consuming, sample-destructive, and require skilled personnel to perform, making them impossible for large-scale nondestructive screening detection, real-time, and on-site analysis.

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), is a type I carcinogen that is one of the strongest naturally occurring aflatoxins and can be injurious to humans and livestock upon ingestion, inhalation, or skin contact, with carcinogenic and mutagenic effects. It causes significant hazardous effects to the food- and animal-production industries. We found a bacterial strain, 3J2MO, that degraded AFB1 well, and here we tested and characterized its AFB1-degradation ability.

As the most toxic mycotoxin of all of the fungal toxins, aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) has carcinogenesis, heptotoxicity, and immunotoxicity. DNA methylation plays a critical role in gene expression regulation of the pathological process. However, the relationship between DNA methylation and AFB1-induced immunotoxicity was not yet reported.

Our previous study reported that aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) promoted influenza replication. Mannan oligosaccharide (MOS), derived from the cell walls of yeast, is a potent immunomodulator. Here, we investigated the role of MOS in AFB1-promoted influenza replication and further explored the underlying mechanisms. In vitro and in vivo, the exposure to AFB1 alone resulted in significantly decreased weight gain and increased viral replication as well as lung and spleen damages.

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) contamination ranks as one of the most critical food safety issues, and assays for its on-site monitoring are highly demanded. Herein, we propose a label-free, one-tube, homogeneous, and cheap AFB1 assay based on a finely tunable dual-terminal stemmed aptamer beacon (DS aptamer beacon) and aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effects.

Our previous studies showed that aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and ochratoxin A (OTA) could trigger joint immune toxicity. Little is known about the combined effects of selenomethionine (SeMet) and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on the joint toxicities of the two toxins. In this study, results showed that SeMet or NAC alone or in combination significantly alleviated the downswing of cell viability, glutathione production, and phagorytosis induced by AFB1 and OTA in porcine alveolar macrophages.

A human antiaflatoxin B1 (AFB1) scFv antibody (yAFB1-c3), selected from a naı̈ve human phage-displayed scFv library, was used as a template for improving and analysis of antibody–ligand interactions using the chain-shuffling technique. The variable-heavy and variable-light (VH/VL)-shuffled library was constructed from the VH of 25 preselected clones recombined with the VL of yAFB1-c3 and vice versa.

Aspergillus flavus is a soil fungus that commonly invades peanut seeds and often produces carcinogenic aflatoxins. Under favorable conditions, the fungus-challenged peanut plant produces and accumulates resveratrol and its prenylated derivatives in response to such an invasion. These prenylated stilbenoids are considered peanut antifungal phytoalexins. However, the mechanism of peanut–fungus interaction has not been sufficiently studied.