Humic acids alleviate aflatoxin B1-induced hepatic injury by reprogramming gut microbiota and absorbing toxin

Geraniol alleviates liver injury induced by bisphenol A via modulating NLRP3/caspase-1 pathway and gut microbiota in mice model

Bisphenol A has become a global public health problem. As an antioxidant, geraniol has potential preventive effects against toxicity. This study analyzes the preventive effect of geraniol against BPA induced liver injury in CD-1 mice. Geraniol administration significantly ameliorated BPA induced liver damage by the increase in superoxide dismutase/catalase enzymatic activities, and decrease in malonaldehyde level; prompted a significant reduction in the expression levels of inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6), and pyroptosis biomarkers (NLRP3, ASC, and caspase-1); up-regulated the expression of claudin-1, ZO-1, and occludin markedly, which exhibited intestinal barrier function. Also, geraniol treatment optimized the composition and diversity of gut microbiota. It may be summarized that geraniol showed protective effects on liver injury induced by BPA and further revealed that the mechanism might be located on improving intestinal physical barrier function, down-regulating pyroptosis biomarkers, and normalizing intestinal microbiota, consequently reducing inflammatory response in the liver.

Danshen polysaccharides alleviate AFB1 induced Jejunal injury

AFB1 is a common foodborne toxin known for its potent carcinogenicity. Danshen polysaccharide (DSP) is an active ingredient of Danshen, which has been demonstrated to possess support intestinal homeostasis and anti-inflammatory activities. We utilized New Zealand White rabbits as an animal model to examine the impact of co-exposure to DSP and AFB1 on the intestines, as well as their underlying mechanisms. The results indicate that DSP elevated the abundance of Oscillospira, Coprococcus, Alistipes, Akkermansia, Bacteroides, Odoribacter, Blautia and Parabacteroides, while decreased the abundance of Sutterella, and Desulfovibrio, correcting AFB1-induced intestinal microbiota dysbiosis and enhancing microbial diversity within the gut. Moreover, DSP reduced the levels of diamine oxidase (DAO), D-Lactate, and malondialdehyde (MDA), while upregulating the expression of total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1), occludin, claudin-4, mucin-2 (MUC2), and secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA), thereby alleviating the oxidative stress and intestinal barrier dysfunction induced by AFB1. DSP downregulated jejunal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) levels and the mRNA expression and proteins abundance of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), myeloiddifferentiationfactor 88 (MyD88), and nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB), thereby inhibiting the jejunal inflammation induced by AFB1. In summary, DSP alleviates AFB1-induced jejunal injury by remodeling the gut microbiota, bolstering antioxidant capabilities within the jejunum, fortifying the intestinal barrier, and suppressing the TLR4-mediated release of pro-inflammatory cytokines.

Polystyrene nanoplastics exacerbate aflatoxin B1-induced hepatic injuries by modulating the gut-liver axis

Dietary pollution of Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) poses a great threat to global food safety, which can result in serious hepatic injuries. Following the widespread use of plastic tableware, co-exposure to microplastics and AFB1 has dramatically increased. However, whether microplastics could exert synergistic effects with AFB1 and amplify its hepatotoxicity, and the underlying mechanisms are still unelucidated. Here, mice were orally exposed to 100 nm polystyrene nanoplastics (NPs) and AFB1 to investigate the influences of NPs on AFB1-induced hepatic injuries. We found that exposure to only NPs or AFB1 resulted in colonic inflammation and the impairment of the intestinal barrier, which was exacerbated by combined exposure to NPs and AFB1. Meanwhile, co-exposure to NPs exacerbated AFB1-induced dysbiosis of gut microbiota and remodeling of the fecal metabolome. Moreover, NPs and AFB1 co-exposure exhibited higher levels of systemic inflammatory factors compared to AFB1 exposure. Additionally, NPs co-exposure further exacerbated AFB1-induced hepatic fibrosis and inflammation, which could be associated with the overactivation of the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB pathway. Notably, Spearman's correlation analysis revealed that the exacerbation of NPs co-exposure was closely associated with microbial dysbiosis. Furthermore, microbiota from NPs-exposed mice (NPsFMT) partly reproduced the exacerbation of NPs on AFB1-induced systemic and hepatic inflammation, but not fibrosis. In summary, our findings indicate that gut microbiota could be involved in the exacerbation of NPs on AFB1-induced hepatic injuries, highlighting the health risks of NPs.

Detoxification of Aflatoxin B1 by Phytochemicals in Agriculture and Food Science

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), the most toxic and harmful mycotoxin, has a high likelihood of occurring in animal feed and human food, which seriously affects agriculture and food safety and endangers animal and human health. Recently, natural plant products have attracted widespread attention due to their low toxicity, high biocompatibility, and simple composition, indicating significant potential for resisting AFB1. The mechanisms by which these phytochemicals resist toxins mainly involve antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and antiapoptotic pathways. Moreover, these substances also inhibit the genotoxicity of AFB1 by directly influencing its metabolism in vivo, which contributes to its elimination. Here, we review various phytochemicals that resist AFB1 and their anti-AFB1 mechanisms in different animals, as well as the common characteristics of phytochemicals with anti-AFB1 function. Additionally, the shortcomings of current research and future research directions will be discussed. Overall, this comprehensive summary contributes to the better application of phytochemicals in agriculture and food safety.

Aflatoxin B1 exposure causes splenic pyroptosis by disturbing the gut microbiota-immune axis

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) causes serious immunotoxicity and has attracted considerable attention owing to its high sensitivity and common chemical-viral interactions in living organisms. However, the sensitivity of different species to AFB1 widely varies, which cannot be explained by the different metabolism in species. The gut microbiota plays a crucial role in the immune system, but the interaction of the microbiota with AFB1-induced immunotoxicity still needs to be determined. Our results indicated that AFB1 exposure disrupted the structure of the gut microbiota and damaged the gut barrier, which caused translocation of microbiota metabolites, lipopolysaccharides, to the spleen. Subsequently, pyroptosis of the spleen was activated. Interestingly, AFB1 exposure had little effect on the splenic pyroptosis of pseudo-germfree mice (antibiotic mixtures eliminated their gut microbiota, ABX). Then, fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) and sterile fecal filtrate (SFF) were employed to validate the function of the gut microbiota and its metabolites in AFB1-induced splenic pyroptosis. The AFB1-disrupted microbiota and its metabolites significantly promoted splenic pyroptosis, which was worse than that in control mice. Overall, AFB1-induced splenic pyroptosis is associated with the gut microbiota and its metabolites, which was further demonstrated by FMT and SFF. The mechanism of AFB1-induced splenic pyroptosis was explored for the first time, which paves a new way for preventing and treating the immunotoxicity from mycotoxins by regulating the gut microbiota.

Microbial Composition of Water Kefir Grains and Their Application for the Detoxification of Aflatoxin B1

Water kefir grains (WKGs), the starter used to develop a traditional beverage named water kefir, consist of a symbiotic mixture of probiotics with diverse bioactivities, but little is known about their abilities to remove mycotoxins that have serious adverse effects on humans and animals. This study investigated the ability of WKGs to remove aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), one of the most toxic mycotoxins, under different settings, and determined the mechanism of absorption mediated by WKGs and the effect of WKGs on the toxicity induced by AFB1 and the reduction in AFB1 in cow milk and tea soups. The results showed the WKGs used herein were dominated by Lactobacillus, Acetobacter, Phenylobacterium, Sediminibacterium, Saccharomyces, Issatchenkia, and Kodamaea. HPLC analysis demonstrated that the WKGs effectively removed AFB1 at concentrations ranging from 1 to 5 µg/mL, pH values ranging from 3 to 9, and temperatures ranging from 4 to 45 °C. Additionally, the removal of AFB1 mainly depended on absorption, which was consistent with the Freundlich and pseudo-second-order kinetic models. Moreover, only 49.63% of AFB1 was released from the AFB1-WKG complex after four washes when the release of AFB1 was non-detectable. Furthermore, WKG treatment caused a dramatic reduction in the mutagenicity induced by AFB1 according to an Ames test and reduced more than 54% of AFB1 in cow milk and three tea soups. These results suggested that WKGs can act as a potential bio-absorbent with a high binding ability to detoxify AFB1 in food and feed via a chemical action step and multi-binding sites of AFB1 absorption in a wide range of scenarios.