Omics analysis revealed the intestinal toxicity induced by aflatoxin B1 and aflatoxin M1

Ya-Nan Gao; Zi-Wei Wang; Chuan-You Su; Jia-Qi Wang; Nan Zheng

doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2024.116336

Omics analysis revealed the intestinal toxicity induced by aflatoxin B1 and aflatoxin M1

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2024 Apr 30:278:116336. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2024.116336. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Ya-Nan Gao¹, Zi-Wei Wang², Chuan-You Su³, Jia-Qi Wang², Nan Zheng⁴

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Quality & Safety Control for Milk and Dairy Products of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China; Laboratory of Quality and Safety Risk Assessment for Dairy Products of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China; Institute of Food Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China.
² Key Laboratory of Quality & Safety Control for Milk and Dairy Products of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China; Laboratory of Quality and Safety Risk Assessment for Dairy Products of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China.
³ College of Animal Science, Henan Agriculture University, Zhengzhou 450000, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Quality & Safety Control for Milk and Dairy Products of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China; Laboratory of Quality and Safety Risk Assessment for Dairy Products of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China. Electronic address: zhengnan@caas.cn.

PMID: 38691883
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2024.116336

Abstract

Aﬂatoxin B1 (AFB1), a common mycotoxin, can occur in agricultural products. As a metabolite of AFB1, aﬂatoxin M1 (AFM1) mainly exist in dairy products. These two mycotoxins threaten human health, although it is unclear how they affect the function of the intestinal barrier. In this study, mice were exposed to AFB1 (0.3 mg/kg body b.w.) and AFM1(3.0 mg/kg b.w.) either individually or in combination for 28 days to explore the main differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) and the associated enriched pathways. These findings were preliminarily verified by the transcriptomic and proteomic analyses in differentiated Caco-2 cells. The results revealed that AFB1 and AFM1 exposure in mice disrupted the function of the intestinal barrier, and the combined toxicity was greater than that of each toxin alone. Further proteomic analysis in mice demonstrated that the mechanisms underlying these differences could be explained as follows: (i) lipid metabolism was enriched by AFB1-induced DEPs. (ii) protein export pathway was stimulated by AFM1-induced DEPs. (iii) cell metabolic ability was inhibited (as evidenced by changes in UDP-GT1, UDP-GT2, and Gatm6), apoptosis was induced (MAP4K3), and epithelial cell integrity was disrupted (Claudin7 and IQGAP2), resulting in more extensive intestinal damage after combined treatment. In conclusion, the hazardous impact of co-exposure to AFB1 and AFM1 from proteomic perspectives was demonstrated in the present study.

Keywords: Aflatoxin B1; Aflatoxin M1; Co-exposure; Intestinal toxicity; Proteomics.