Abstract
Adlay is a cereal crop that has long been used as traditional herbal medicine and as a highly nourishing food. However, deoxynivalenol (DON), the most prevalent trichothecene mycotoxin worldwide, frequently spoils grains, including adlay, via fungal infection. On the basis of an assumption that the actions of DON in the gut could be modified by adlay consumption, we simulated the impacts of co-exposure in enterocytes and investigated the effectiveness of treatment with adlay for reducing the risk of DON-induced inflammation and epithelia barrier injury. In particular, adlay suppressed DON-induced pro-inflammatory signals such as mitogen-activated kinase transduction and the epidermal growth factor receptor-linked pathway. In addition to regulation of pro-inflammatory responses, adlay treatment interfered with DON-induced disruption of the epithelial barrier. Mechanistically, adlay could boost the activation of protein kinase C (PKC) and cytosolic translocation of human antigen R (HuR) protein, which played critical roles in the epithelial restitution, resulting in protection against disruption of enterocyte barrier integrity. Notably, DON abrogated the Ras homolog gene family member A GTPase-mediated actin cytoskeletal network, which was diminished by adlay treatment in PKC and HuR-dependent ways. Taken together, this study provides evidences for adlay-based attenuation of trichothecene-induced gut distress, implicating potential use of a new gut protector against enteropathogenic insults in diets.
Highlights
Among the broadly used herbal medicines for gut health, cereal-based adlay (Job’s tears, Coix lachryma-jobi L.) is a monocotyledon-based grain-bearing crop that is widely planted in many Asian countries
Suppression of IL-8 mRNA was demonstrated in enterocytes treated with lower levels of adlay extract (Figure 1C)
Adlay can be contaminated with DON, components of adlay bran were shown to attenuate the toxin-induced adverse effects in enterocytes
Summary
Among the broadly used herbal medicines for gut health, cereal-based adlay (Job’s tears, Coix lachryma-jobi L.) is a monocotyledon-based grain-bearing crop that is widely planted in many Asian countries. Herbal medicines can be contaminated by a broad variety of fungal toxic metabolites, including mycotoxins from Aspergillus spp., Penlicillium spp., or Fusarium spp [1,2,3]. Fusarium head blight and its toxic metabolites such trichothecenes are present in adlay (family: Poaceae) as a rich source of Fusarium species [4, 5]. The trichothecene mycotoxins, a group of secondary metabolites produced by sesquiterpenoid fungi, are widely found with high prevalence in cereals, grains, feedstuffs, and indoor air [6]. Deoxynivalenol (DON; vomitoxin) is mainly produced by Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium
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