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Title: Developing mechanism-based and exposure biomarkers for mycotoxins in animals

Author
item Riley, Ronald
item Voss, Kenneth
item COULOMBE, R - Utah State University
item PESTKA, J - Michigan State University
item WILLIAMS, D - Oregon State University

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/1/2010
Publication Date: 1/1/2011
Citation: Riley, R.T., Voss, K.A., Coulombe, R.A., Pestka, J.J., Williams, D.E. 2011. Developing mechanism-based and exposure biomarkers for mycotoxins in animals. In: DeSaeger, S., editor. Determining Mycotoxins and Mycotoxigenic Fungi in Food and Feed. Cambridge, UK: Woodhead Publishing Limited. p. 245-275.

Interpretive Summary: The purpose of this review is to briefly summarize the toxicology and current state of biomarker development for commercially important mycotoxins. Combining information about known exposure, clinical indicators and biomarkers will provide a potential bioinformatic “silver bullet” for identifying disease causation in the most economical and definitive manner. There is no single diagnostic approach that can identify/pinpoint when a disease outbreak is due to exposure to a mycotoxin or even when a mycotoxin could be a possible contributing factor to a disease outbreak of unknown etiology. One major problem is that the dose-response studies necessary to reveal the threshold for changes in mechanism-specific biochemical alterations (mechanism-based biomarkers) often have not been statistically correlated with thresholds for disease progression and exposure biomarkers (parent compound or a metabolite in tissues/fluids). The key is to better define the underlying biochemical changes and thresholds that ultimately lead to adverse effects. To accomplish this, the first site of action or more precisely, the proximate cause for all the downstream effects must be identified. The development of validated biomarkers is critical to the effort to reduce the existing uncertainty in the risk assessment of most mycotoxins and to be able to predict with some degree of certainty when a specific mycotoxin is a contributing factor in a disease outbreak.

Technical Abstract: Book chapter - no abstract.