Abstract
The filamentous fungus Stachybotrys chartarum is known for its toxic metabolites and has been associated with serious health problems, including mycotoxicosis, among occupants of contaminated buildings. Here, we present results from a case study, where an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method was developed for known and tentatively identified compounds characterized via UHPLC-quadruple time-of-flight (QTOF) screening of fungal culture extracts, wall scrapings and reference standards. The UHPLC-MS/MS method was able to identify 12 Stachybotrys metabolites, of which four could be quantified based on authentic standards and a further six estimated based on similarity to authentic standards. Samples collected from walls contaminated by S. chartarum in a water-damaged building showed that the two known chemotypes, S and A, coexisted. More importantly, a link between mycotoxin concentrations found on contaminated surfaces and in settled dust was made. One dust sample, collected from a water-damaged room, contained 10 pg/cm2 macrocyclic trichothecenes (roridin E). For the first time, more than one spirocyclic drimane was detected in dust. Spirocyclic drimanes were detected in all 11 analysed dust samples and in total amounted to 600 pg/cm2 in the water-damaged room and 340 pg/cm2 in rooms adjacent to the water-damaged area. Their wide distribution in detectable amounts in dust suggested they could be good candidates for exposure biomarkers.Graphical abstract Stachybotrys growing on a gypsum board, and some of the compounds it producesElectronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00216-016-9649-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Fungal spores are ubiquitous in indoor environments, and the growth of mould in buildings can often lead to negative health effects such as skin rashes, headaches, dizziness and chronic fatigue of the occupants [1,2,3]
Wallboard showed the presence of both atranones and macrocyclic trichothecenes. Further comparison of these extracts to metabolite profiles from Stachybotrys pure agar cultures confirmed the presence of both chemotypes. Whilst these results clearly suggested S. chartarum chemotype S as the macrocyclic trichothecene-producing contaminant, identification of the atranone-producing contaminant was more difficult, as chemical analysis could not distinguish between S. chartarum chemotype A and S. chlorohalonata
This case study presents a semi-quantitative UHPLC-QqQ method with several new exposure biomarkers, which was developed based on UHPLC-qQTOF screening of culture extracts
Summary
Fungal spores are ubiquitous in indoor environments, and the growth of mould in buildings can often lead to negative health effects such as skin rashes, headaches, dizziness and chronic fatigue of the occupants [1,2,3]. The presence of moulds in the indoor environment is generally undesirable, some species, such as Stachybotrys chartarum and Chaetomium globosum, are considered more problematic [3]. S. chartarum is known for its production of toxic metabolites that have been connected to the extensive occurrence of negative health effects [1, 4] and possibly linked to idiopathic pulmonary haemosiderosis in babies [5, 6]. Chemotype A produces atranones and their precursors, dolabellanes, together with the simple nonmacrocyclic trichothecene, trichodermin [9]. Both chemotypes produce many metabolites belonging to the (5 atranone A, 6 atranone B, 7 and 6 hydroxydolabella-3E,7E,12-trien14-one, 8 simple trichothecene trichodermin) and macrocyclic trichothecenes characteristic of chemotype S (9 roridin E, roridin L2, satratoxin H, satratoxin G)
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