Aflatoxin B1 decontamination by UV-mutated live and immobilized Aspergillus niger

Relevant mycotoxins in oil crops, vegetable oils, de-oiled cake and meals: Occurrence, control, and recent advances in elimination

Mycotoxins in agricultural commodities have always been a concern due to their negative impacts on human and livestock health. Issues associated with quality control, hot and humid climate, improper storage, and inappropriate production can support the development of fungus, causing oil crops to suffer from mycotoxin contamination, which in turn migrates to the resulting oil, de-oiled cake and meals during the oil processing. Related research which supports the development of multi-mycotoxin prevention programs has resulted in satisfactory mitigation effects, mainly in the pre-harvest stage. Nevertheless, preventive actions are unlikely to avoid the occurrence of mycotoxins completely, so removal strategies may still be necessary to protect consumers. Elimination of mycotoxin has been achieved broadly through the physical, biological, or chemical course. In view of the steadily increasing volume of scientific literature regarding mycotoxins, there is a need for ongoing integrated knowledge systems. This work revisited the knowledge of mycotoxins affecting oilseeds, food oils, cake, and meals, focusing more on their varieties, toxicity, and preventive strategies, including the methods adopted in the decontamination, which supplement the available information.

Current physical techniques for the degradation of aflatoxins in food and feed: Safety evaluation methods, degradation mechanisms and products

Aflatoxins are the most toxic natural mycotoxins discovered so far, posing a serious menace to the food safety and trading economy of the world, especially developing countries. How to effectively detoxify has persistently occupied a place on the list of "global hot-point" concerns. Among the developed detoxification methods, physical methods, as the authoritative techniques for aflatoxins degradation, could rapidly induce irreversible denaturation of aflatoxins. This review presents a brief overview of aflatoxins detection and degradation product structure identification methods. Four main safety evaluation methods for aflatoxins and degradation product toxicity assessment are highlighted combined with an update on research of aflatoxins decontamination in the last decade. Furthermore, the latest applications, degradation mechanisms and products of physical aflatoxin decontamination techniques including microwave heating, irradiation, pulsed light, cold plasma and ultrasound are discussed in detail. Regulatory issues related to "detoxification" are also explained. Finally, we put forward the challenges and future work in studying aflatoxin degradation based on the existing research. The purpose of supplying this information is to help researchers have a deeper understanding on the degradation of aflatoxins, break through the existing bottleneck, and further improve and innovate the detoxification methods of aflatoxins.

Intermittent Exposure to Aflatoxin B1 Did Not Affect Neurobehavioral Parameters and Biochemical Markers of Oxidative Stress

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is the most common toxic mycotoxin that contaminates food. The treatment of its intoxication and the management of contaminations are a constant subject of health agendas worldwide. However, such efforts are not always enough to avoid population intoxication. Our objective was to investigate whether intermittent exposure to AFB1 would cause any impairment in biochemical and behavioral parameters, intending to simulate an irregular consumption. Male Wistar rats received four AFB1 administrations (250 μg/kg) by intragastric route separated by a 96-h interval. Toxicity was evaluated using behavioral tests (open field, object recognition, nest construction, marble burying, and splash test), biochemical markers of oxidative stress (cerebral cortex, hippocampus, liver, and kidneys), and plasma parameters of hepatic and renal functions. The intermittent exposure caused no modification in body weight gain as well as in organ weight. Both control and AFB1 groups presented similar profiles of behavior to all tests performed. Furthermore, AFB1 administrations alter neither antioxidant defenses nor markers of oxidation in all assayed tissues and in the plasma markers of hepatic and renal functions. Therefore, AFB1 intermittent administration did not cause its common damage from exposure to this toxicant, which must be avoided, and additional studies are required.

Degradation of Ochratoxin A by a UV-Mutated Aspergillus niger Strain

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a mycotoxin that can contaminate a wide range of crops such as grains and grapes. In this study, a novel fungal mutant strain (FS-UV-21) with a high OTA degradation rate (74.5%) was obtained from Aspergillus niger irradiated with ultraviolet light (15 W for 20 min). The effect of pH, temperature, and inoculation concentration on the degradation of OTA by FS-UV-21 was investigated, and the results revealed that the detoxification effect was optimal (89.4%) at a pH of 8 and a temperature of 30 °C. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was used to characterize the degraded products of OTA, and the main degraded product was ochratoxin α. Triple quadrupole-linear ion trap-mass spectrometry combined with LightSight software was used to analyze the biotransformation pathway of OTA in FS-UV-21, to trace the degraded products, and to identify the main metabolite, P1 (C19H18ClNO6, m/z 404). After the FS-UV-21 strain was treated with OTA, the HepG2 cellular toxicity of the degradation products was significantly reduced. For the real sample, FS-UV-21 was used to remove OTA from wheat bran contaminated by mycotoxins through fermentation, resulting in the degradation of 59.8% of OTA in wheat bran. Therefore, FS-UV-21 can be applied to the degradation of OTA in agricultural products and food.

Enhancing the degradation of Aflatoxin B1 by co-cultivation of two fungi strains with the improved production of detoxifying enzymes

After the co-culture of Aspergillus niger and Pleurotus ostreatus, the obtained extracellular crude enzymes solution was employed to aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁) degradation. The maximum AFB₁ degradation with co-culture reached 93.4%, which increased by 65.9% and 37.6%, respectively, compared with those of the mono-culture of Pleurotus ostreatus and Aspergillus niger. The molecular weight of the key detoxifying enzymes isolated by ultrafiltration was 58 and 63 kDa by SDS-PAGE analysis. The purified detoxifying enzymes had a high detoxification effect on AFB₁ with the degradation rate of 94.7%. It was found that the co-culture of Pleurotus ostreatus and Aspergillus niger promoted the production of 58 and 63 kDa detoxifying enzymes to enhance the AFB₁ degradation. The chemical structure of major degradation products of AFB₁ by the mixed cultures were preliminarily identified by LC-Triple TOF MS. Two pathways of AFB₁ degradation were inferred with the high potential of fungal co-cultivations for AFB₁ detoxification applications.

Degradation and Detoxification of Aflatoxin B1 by Tea-Derived Aspergillus niger RAF106

Microbial degradation is an effective and attractive method for eliminating aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), which is severely toxic to humans and animals. In this study, Aspergillus niger RAF106 could effectively degrade AFB1 when cultivated in Sabouraud dextrose broth (SDB) with contents of AFB1 ranging from 0.1 to 4 μg/mL. Treatment with yeast extract as a nitrogen source stimulated the degradation, but treatment with NaNO₃ and NaNO₂ as nitrogen sources and lactose and sucrose as carbon sources suppressed the degradation. Moreover, A. niger RAF106 still degraded AFB1 at initial pH values that ranged from 4 to 10 and at cultivation temperatures that ranged from 25 to 45 °C. In addition, intracellular enzymes or proteins with excellent thermotolerance were verified as being able to degrade AFB1 into metabolites with low or no mutagenicity. Furthermore, genomic sequence analysis indicated that the fungus was considered to be safe owing to the absence of virulence genes and the gene clusters for the synthesis of mycotoxins. These results indicate that A. niger RAF106 and its intracellular enzymes or proteins have a promising potential to be applied commercially in the processing and industry of food and feed to detoxify AFB1.

Novel strategies for degradation of aflatoxins in food and feed: A review

Aflatoxins are toxic secondary metabolites mainly produced by Aspergillus fungi, posing high carcinogenic potency in humans and animals. Dietary exposure to aflatoxins is a global problem in both developed and developing countries especially where there is poor regulation of their levels in food and feed. Thus, academics have been striving over the decades to develop effective strategies for degrading aflatoxins in food and feed. These strategies are technologically diverse and based on physical, chemical, or biological principles. This review summarizes the recent progress on novel aflatoxin degradation strategies including irradiation, cold plasma, ozone, electrolyzed oxidizing water, organic acids, natural plant extracts, microorganisms and enzymes. A clear understanding of the detoxification efficiency, mechanism of action, degradation products, application potential and current limitations of these methods is presented. In addition, the development and future perspective of nanozymes in aflatoxins degradation are introduced.

Immobilization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae on Perlite Beads for the Decontamination of Aflatoxin M1 in Milk

Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) contamination presents one of the most serious concerns in milk safety. In this study, the immobilization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used to detoxify AFM1-contaminated milk. The yeasts were immobilized on perlite for 24 and 48 hr, and the best immobilization time was achieved at 48 hr. Microscopic examination confirmed successful immobilization. The milk samples with 0.08, 0.13, 0.18, and 0.23 ppb AFM1 contamination were passed through the biofilter for 20, 40, and 80 min. The results showed a significant reduction in AFM1 concentration for all the milk samples with various initial AFM1 contents. The contaminated milk with 0.08 ppb AFM1 was completely cleared after 40 min of circulation while for the milk solution with 0.23 ppb, the highest AFM1 reduction was obtained at about 81.3% after 80 min circulation. In addition, the biofilter was saturated after the third step of milk circulation, containing 0.23 ppb AF, in which each step duration was 20 min. This study showed the excellent capability of the immobilized cells on the perlite beads to detoxify the AFM1-contaminated milk without any side effects on its physicochemical properties.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

The immobilization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells on perlite beads can be used to detoxify AFM1-contaminated milk. The perlite can provide a perfect support for immobilization. With respect to qualitative properties, 20 min, was suggested as the optimum time for milk decontamination. This study indicated that the detoxification of contaminated milk using immobilized S. cerevisiae cells on the perlite support did not affect the different properties of detoxified milk. This method can lead to a practical solution to address aflatoxin contamination in dairy products considered high-risk foods.

Adsorption of cadmium ions using the bioadsorbent of Pichia kudriavzevii YB5 immobilized by polyurethane foam and alginate gels

Pichia kudriavzevii YB5, mutated from Pichia kudriavzevii A16 with a strong ability to remove cadmium ions, was immobilized by polyurethane foam and alginate gels in this work. The immobilization conditions were optimized as follows: sodium alginate concentration of 2% (w/v), calcium chloride concentration of 2% (w/v), biomass dose of 1 × 10⁹ cell/mL, and cross-linking time for 4 h. Then, the results of batch adsorption experiments showed that the removal capacity of prepared bioadsorbent was significantly affected by the pH of media, contact time, and the initial Cd(II) concentration, and a suitable adsorption conditions of Cd(II) could be achieved with a pH value of 6.0 at 20 °C for 90 min. Kinetic and isothermal results indicated the behavior of Cd(II) adsorption onto immobilized P. kudriavzevii YB5 fitted to the pseudo-second-order kinetic equation and the Langmuir adsorption model. Thermodynamic results showed that the Cd(II) adsorption process was endothermic and spontaneous in nature. Besides, the Cd(II) removing capacity of the prepared bioadsorbent was also tested in the oyster hydrolysates, showing an average removal rate of 54.35%. Thus, the immobilized P. kudriavzevii YB5 adsorbent had great potential for application in aquatic products to ensure the food safety.