Mycotoxins and Nuclear Receptors: A Still Underexplored Issue

Mycotoxins are fungal secondary metabolites that can be found in food commodities worldwide. They exert a wide range of adverse effects towards humans and animals. Although toxicological studies have addressed these food contaminants over decades, their mode of actions as well as their synergistic effects are still to be deeply clarified. Among the toxicological targets, nuclear receptors have been identified by several studies. Besides the estrogenic effect, a wider range of endocrine and neuroendocrine disrupting effects have been reported so far. This review is aimed at addressing the recent advances in toxicology, and at highlighting possible gaps of knowledge

Risk Assessment of RYR Food Supplements: Perception vs. Reality

Thirty-seven red yeast rice (RYR) food supplements were screened for their mycotoxin and natural statin content. Products included pure RYR capsules and multi-ingredient formulations with standardized amounts of monacolin K (MK), marketed both online and retail in the European Union. In terms of mycotoxins, citrinin (CIT) was found in all the monitored products. As CIT content ranged from 100 to 25100 μg/kg, only four products were compliant with maximum EU levels in force until April 2020, while a single product was compliant with the limit of 100 μg/kg introduced after that date. Four contaminated products were labeled as “citrinin free”. In terms of natural statins, nine products had a lower content vs. label statements (from −30 to −83%), while for 24 a larger MK amount (from 10 to 266%) was noticed. Three products had a negligible MK content and only 19 offered a daily dosage exceeding 10 mg as dictated by the health claim granted by EFSA in the EU. No sample had label values compliant with pharmaceutical Good Manufacturing Practices requirements (95–105% content of active constituent). Variable, but small amounts of simvastatin (0.1–7.5 μg per daily dose) were found in 30 samples. These results suggest that limited efficacy and reported safety issues may stem from an under-regulated and undercontrolled market, weakening both effectiveness and risk assessment evaluations

Assessing the Mycotoxin-related Health Impact of Shifting from Meat-based Diets to Soy-based Meat Analogues in a Model Scenario Based on Italian Consumption Data

The aim of this study was to assess the risk of replacing meat with plant-based analogues with respect to mycotoxin exposure, as a proof of concept to demonstrate the need for a proper regulatory framework for mycotoxins in meat imitates. Hence, we considered a full replacement of meat consumption with soy-based meat analogues and we evaluated the exposure to AFB1 and OTA, based on the Italian National Food Consumption Survey INRAN-SCAI 2005–2006 and the European Food Safety Authority occurrence data. The overall health impact from soy-based food consumption and a meat-free diet was quantified in terms of Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) in three different contamination and consumption scenarios. The substitution of meat products with soy-based imitates would prevent up to 406.2 colorectal cancer cases/year/country associated with 532 healthy years of life. However, we also determined an increased risk of liver cancer and loss of healthy life-years due to AFB1 exposure and a potential risk of renal cancer as due to an increased intake of OTA, leading up to 1208 extra cancer cases associated with the loss of 12,080 healthy life-years/country. Shifting to a plant-based diet actually eliminates a cancer risk factor such as processed meat, however, higher and unexpected risks could arise if mycotoxins are not properly regulated in plant-based meat alternatives. Taking into account the ubiquitous occurrence of mycotoxins, also in the light of climate change, and the growing trend toward plant-based meat analogues, greater importance should be given to actual food consumption trends and correlated with updated natural toxins regulations and risk assessments

Algebraic coarsening in voter models with intermediate states

The introduction of intermediate states in the dynamics of the voter model modifies the ordering process and restores an effective surface tension. The logarithmic coarsening of the conventional voter model in two dimensions is eliminated in favour of an algebraic decay of the density of interfaces with time, compatible with Model A dynamics at low temperatures. This phenomenon is addressed by deriving Langevin equations for the dynamics of appropriately defined continuous fields. These equations are analyzed using field theoretical arguments and by means of a recently proposed numerical technique for the integration of stochastic equations with multiplicative noise. We find good agreement with lattice simulations of the microscopic model.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures; minor typos correcte

Effective Free Energy for Individual Dynamics

Physics and economics are two disciplines that share the common challenge of linking microscopic and macroscopic behaviors. However, while physics is based on collective dynamics, economics is based on individual choices. This conceptual difference is one of the main obstacles one has to overcome in order to characterize analytically economic models. In this paper, we build both on statistical mechanics and the game theory notion of Potential Function to introduce a rigorous generalization of the physicist's free energy, which includes individual dynamics. Our approach paves the way to analytical treatments of a wide range of socio-economic models and might bring new insights into them. As first examples, we derive solutions for a congestion model and a residential segregation model.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, presented at the ECCS'10 conferenc

Microscopic activity patterns in the Naming Game

The models of statistical physics used to study collective phenomena in some interdisciplinary contexts, such as social dynamics and opinion spreading, do not consider the effects of the memory on individual decision processes. On the contrary, in the Naming Game, a recently proposed model of Language formation, each agent chooses a particular state, or opinion, by means of a memory-based negotiation process, during which a variable number of states is collected and kept in memory. In this perspective, the statistical features of the number of states collected by the agents becomes a relevant quantity to understand the dynamics of the model, and the influence of topological properties on memory-based models. By means of a master equation approach, we analyze the internal agent dynamics of Naming Game in populations embedded on networks, finding that it strongly depends on very general topological properties of the system (e.g. average and fluctuations of the degree). However, the influence of topological properties on the microscopic individual dynamics is a general phenomenon that should characterize all those social interactions that can be modeled by memory-based negotiation processes.Comment: submitted to J. Phys.

An innovative solution for earthquake resistance hybrid steel –concrete systems with replaceable dissipative steel links

In this work innovative hybrid coupled shear walls (HCSW) are considered, their design is discussed, their efficiency and limitations evaluated by means of nonlinear static (pushover) analysis. Different numbers of storeys, wall geometries and design assumptions are studied in order to give an overview of situations of interest in European seismic prone areas. The design of an experimental test regarding the performance of the connection of a seismic link embedded in a concrete shear wall is presented. This study is part of a larger research project named INNO-HYCO (INNOvative HYbrid and COmposite steel-concrete structural solutions for building in seismic area) funded by the European Commission

Modulation of aflatoxin B1 cytotoxicity and aflatoxin M1 synthesis by natural antioxidants in a bovine mammary epithelial cell line

Aflatoxin (AF) B1, a widespread food and feed contaminant, is bioactivated by drug metabolizing enzymes (DME) to cytotoxic and carcinogenic metabolites like AFB1-epoxide and AFM1, a dairy milk contaminant. A number of natural antioxidants have been reported to afford a certain degree of protection against AFB1 (cyto)toxicity. As the mammary gland potentially participates in the generation of AFB1 metabolites, we evaluated the role of selected natural antioxidants (i.e. curcumin, quercetin and resveratrol) in the modulation of AFB1 toxicity and metabolism using a bovine mammary epithelial cell line (BME-UV1). Quercetin and, to a lesser extent, resveratrol and curcumin from Curcuma longa (all at 5 \u3bcM) significantly counteracted the AFB1-mediated impairment of cell viability (concentration range: 96\u2013750 nM). Moreover, quercetin was able to significantly reduce the synthesis of AFM1. The quantitative PCR analysis on genes encoding for DME (phase I and II) and antioxidant enzymes showed that AFB1 caused an overall downregulation of the detoxifying systems, and mainly of GSTA1, which mediates the GSH conjugation of the AFB1-epoxide. The negative modulation of GSTA1 was efficiently reversed in the presence of quercetin, which significantly increased GSH levels as well. It is suggested that quercetin exerts its beneficial effects by depressing the bio-transformation of AFB1 and counterbalancing its pro-oxidant effects