Abstract
Mycotoxins severely threaten the health of humans and animals. For this reason, many countries have enforced regulations and recommendations to reduce the dietary exposure. However, even though regulatory actions must be based on solid scientific knowledge, many aspects of their toxicological activity are still poorly understood. In particular, deepening knowledge on the primal molecular events triggering the toxic stimulus may be relevant to better understand the mechanisms of action of mycotoxins. The present work presents the use of in silico approaches in studying the mycotoxins toxicodynamics, and discusses how they may contribute in widening the background of knowledge. A particular emphasis has been posed on the methods accounting the molecular initiating events of toxic action. In more details, the key concepts and challenges of mycotoxins toxicology have been introduced. Then, topical case studies have been presented and some possible practical implementations of studying mycotoxins toxicodynamics have been discussed.
Highlights
Food Toxicology and Risk AssessmentFood toxicology defines the science dealing with the toxicological effects of food constituents [1].Bearing in mind the old-date assumption “let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food”(attributed citation; Hippocrates of Kos at the turn of the fourth and the fifth century BC), the role of diet in keeping the health and wellbeing of humans and animals has been scientifically proved today.food and feed are among the most complex cocktails of low-molecular weight xenobiotics to which the living organisms are exposed [2]
Keeping in mind that the full comprehension of mycotoxins toxicology is a major challenge for the Scientific Community and it requires inter-disciplinary approaches, this work focuses on the possible support offered by computational methods in the field of toxicodynamics, moving from principles and potentialities (Sections 2 and 3) to the application to case-studies (Section 4) and outlooks (Section 5)
In the context of mycotoxins toxicology, all the mycotoxins and metabolites that may co-occur in food and/or in living organisms at the site of action could be affordably screened in silico for the capability to interact with a given receptor
Summary
Food toxicology defines the science dealing with the toxicological effects of food constituents [1]. The deeper the toxicological understanding, the more appropriate, precise and effective the risk assessment of a molecule (or a class of molecules) can be In this regard, many aspects in the toxicology of mycotoxins are not fully understood yet, especially from a mechanistic point of view. The shortage of toxicological data and the lack of a convincing consensus on toxicity and on the mechanisms of action prevent from setting appropriate guidelines Overall, this scenario points out the need to move further steps in understanding mycotoxins toxicology to timely fill the data gaps and, to provide a sufficiently informed scenario for risk assessment. Keeping in mind that the full comprehension of mycotoxins toxicology is a major challenge for the Scientific Community and it requires inter-disciplinary approaches, this work focuses on the possible support offered by computational methods in the field of toxicodynamics, moving from principles and potentialities (Sections 2 and 3) to the application to case-studies (Section 4) and outlooks (Section 5)
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