Networking on food safety and innovative techniques for evaluating human health risks. Workshop - RiskTox

Abstract

Human biomonitoring (HBM) studies represent the most accurate approach for assessing mycotoxin exposure, based on the quantitative relationship between a biomarker occurring in a biological matrix and the dietary intake. These biomarkers usually consist in either the parent mycotoxin itself, major metabolic products or a combination of both that must undergo a comprehensive validation process to be used as such. Considering the lack of analytical standards for many metabolites and the complexity of the process, only a few biomarkers have been validated for specific mycotoxins in specific matrices. The limited availability of biomarkers remains then a considerable gap in HBM studies. Nonetheless, the determination of a parent mycotoxin and, ideally, its whole metabolic profile, can also provide valuable information about the dietary exposure even if they cannot be strictly used as biomarkers. In this context is where high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) emerges as a crucial tool for HBM studies. Its key feature relies in the possibility to perform non-targeted screenings, that do not require from analytical standards to determine the tentative presence of metabolites or even other mycotoxins that were not initially targeted. In fact, non-targeted approaches stand as frequent strategies for characterizing metabolic profiles of mycotoxins, elucidating preferential biotransformation pathways and selecting the most suitable biological matrix for their determination. The application of targeted, non-targeted and combined approaches for HBM studies of mycotoxins and the different outcomes depending on the strategy will be discussed.