Aflatoxins and fumonisins contamination of home-made food (Weanimix) from cereal-legume blends for children

Background: Weanimix is an important food for children in Ghana. Mothers are trained to prepare homemade weanimix from beans, groundnuts and  maize for their infants. Groundnuts and maize are prone to aflatoxincontamination while fumonisin contaminates maize. Aflatoxin, is produced by the Asperguillus fungi while fumonisin, is produced by Fusarium fungi. These mycotoxins occur in tropical areas worldwide due to favorable climate for their growth.Objective: The objective of the study was to determine the levels of aflatoxin and fumonisin in homemade weanimix in the Ejura-Sekyedumase district in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.Methods: Thirty six homemade weanimix samples (50g each) were collected from households. Aflatoxin and fumonisin were measured using a fluorometric procedure described by the Association of Official AnalyticalChemist (AOAC official method 993.31, V1 series 4).Results: Aflatoxin and fumonisin were detected in all 36 samples, range 7.9-500ppb. Fumonisin levels range: 0.74-11.0ppm). Thirty (83.3%) of the thirty six samples were over the action limit of 20ppb for aflatoxin withan overall mean of 145.2 ppb whiles 58.3% of the samples had fumonisins above the action limit of 4 ppm with an overall mean of 4.7 ppm .Conclusion: There were significant aflatoxin and fumonisin contamination of homemade weanimix. Children fed on this nutritional food were being exposed to unacceptable levels of aflatoxin and fumonisin. Therefore there is a critical need to educate mothers on the dangers of mycotoxin exposure and to develop strategies to eliminate exposure of children fedhomemade weanimix to aflatoxin and fumonisin.Keywords: Aflatoxin, Fumonisin, Home-made Weanimix, infants

Thrombosis Is Reduced by Inhibition of COX-1, but Unaffected by Inhibition of COX-2, in an Acute Model of Platelet Activation in the Mouse

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Quantifying the impact of climate change on drought regimes using the Standardised Precipitation Index

The study presents a methodology to characterise short- or long-term drought events, designed to aid understanding of how climate change may affect future risk. An indicator of drought magnitude, combining parameters of duration, spatial extent and intensity, is presented based on the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI). The SPI is applied to observed (1955–2003) and projected (2003–2050) precipitation data from the Community Integrated Assessment System (CIAS). Potential consequences of climate change on drought regimes in Australia, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, Spain, Portugal and the USA are quantified. Uncertainty is assessed by emulating a range of global circulation models to project climate change. Further uncertainty is addressed through the use of a high-emission scenario and a low stabilisation scenario representing a stringent mitigation policy. Climate change was shown to have a larger effect on the duration and magnitude of long-term droughts, and Australia, Brazil, Spain, Portugal and the USA were highlighted as being particularly vulnerable to multi-year drought events, with the potential for drought magnitude to exceed historical experience. The study highlights the characteristics of drought which may be more sensitive under climate change. For example, on average, short-term droughts in the USA do not become more intense but are projected to increase in duration. Importantly, the stringent mitigation scenario had limited effect on drought regimes in the first half of the twenty-first century, showing that adaptation to drought risk will be vital in these regions

Pattern scaling using ClimGen: monthly-resolution future climate scenarios including changes in the variability of precipitation

Development, testing and example applications of the pattern-scaling approach for generating future climate change projections are reported here, with a focus on a particular software application called “ClimGen”. A number of innovations have been implemented, including using exponential and logistic functions of global-mean temperature to represent changes in local precipitation and cloud cover, and interpolation from climate model grids to a finer grid while taking into account land-sea contrasts in the climate change patterns. Of particular significance is a new approach for incorporating changes in the inter-annual variability of monthly precipitation simulated by climate models. This is achieved by diagnosing simulated changes in the shape of the gamma distribution of monthly precipitation totals, applying the pattern-scaling approach to estimate changes in the shape parameter under a future scenario, and then perturbing sequences of observed precipitation anomalies so that their distribution changes according to the projected change in the shape parameter. The approach cannot represent changes to the structure of climate timeseries (e.g. changed autocorrelation or teleconnection patterns) were they to occur, but is shown here to be more successful at representing changes in low precipitation extremes than previous pattern-scaling methods

Spectrum of mutational signatures in T-cell lymphoma reveals a key role for UV radiation in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma

T-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphomas develop following transformation of tissue resident T-cells. We performed a meta-analysis of whole exome sequencing data from 403 patients with eight subtypes of T-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma to identify mutational signatures and associated recurrent gene mutations. Signature 1, indicative of age-related deamination, was prevalent across all T-cell lymphomas, reflecting the derivation of these malignancies from memory T-cells. Adult T-cell leukemia-lymphoma was specifically associated with signature 17, which was found to correlate with the IRF4 K59R mutation that is exclusive to Adult T-cell leukemia-lymphoma. Signature 7, implicating UV exposure was uniquely identified in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), contributing 52% of the mutational burden in mycosis fungoides and 23% in Sezary syndrome. Importantly this UV signature was observed in CD4 + T-cells isolated from the blood of Sezary syndrome patients suggesting extensive re-circulation of these T-cells through skin and blood. Analysis of non-Hodgkin's T-cell lymphoma cases submitted to the national 100,000 WGS project confirmed that signature 7 was only identified in CTCL strongly implicating UV radiation in the pathogenesis of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma

Protocol for a human in vivo model of acute cigarette smoke inhalation challenge in smokers with COPD: monitoring the nasal and systemic immune response using a network biology approach

Introduction: Cigarette smoke contributes to a diverse range of diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cardiovascular disorders and many cancers. There currently is a need for human challenge models, to assess the acute effects of a controlled cigarette smoke stimulus, followed by serial sampling of blood and respiratory tissue for advanced molecular profiling. We employ precision sampling of nasal mucosal lining fluid by absorption to permit soluble mediators measurement in eluates. Serial nasal curettage was used for transcriptomic analysis of mucosal tissue. Methods and analysis: Three groups of strictly defined patients will be studied: 12 smokers with COPD (GOLD Stage 2) with emphysema, 12 matched smokers with normal lung function and no evidence of emphysema, and 12 matched never smokers with normal spirometry. Patients in the smoking groups are current smokers, and will be given full support to stop smoking immediately after this study. In giving a controlled cigarette smoke stimulus, all patients will have abstained from smoking for 12 h, and will smoke two cigarettes with expiration through the nose in a ventilated chamber. Before and after inhalation of cigarette smoke, a series of samples will be taken from the blood, nasal mucosal lining fluid and nasal tissue by curettage. Analysis of plasma nicotine and metabolites in relation to levels of soluble inflammatory mediators in nasal lining fluid and blood, as well as assessing nasal transcriptomics, ex vivo blood platelet aggregation and leucocyte responses to toll-like receptor agonists will be undertaken. Implications: Development of acute cigarette smoke challenge models has promise for the study of molecular effects of smoking in a range of pathological processes.This study was funded by the Wellcome Trust and Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma Co Ltd, Osaka, Japan. Supported by: Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma Co Ltd, Osaka, Japan National Institute of Healthcare Research (Grant No: R3101002), NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR BMRC), Imperial Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC), Imperial Centre for Respiratory Infection (CRI, Grant No: 083567/Z/07/Z), Wellcome Trust (Grant No: 083429/Z/07/Z)

Oral nitrate supplementation improves cardiovascular risk markers in COPD: ON-BC a randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Short term studies suggest that dietary nitrate supplementation may improve cardiovascular risk profile, lowering blood pressure (BP) and enhancing endothelial function. It is not clear if these beneficial effects are sustained and whether they apply in people with COPD, who have a worse cardiovascular profile than those without COPD. Nitrate-rich beetroot juice BRJ (NR-BRJ) is a convenient dietary source of nitrate. METHODS: The ON-BC trial was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel group study in stable COPD patients with home systolic BP (SBP) measurement ≥130 mmHg. Participants were randomly allocated (1:1) using computer-generated, block randomization to either 70 mL of NR-BRJ (400 mg NO3 -) (n=40) or an otherwise identical nitrate-depleted placebo juice Pl-BRJ (0 mg NO3 -) (n=41), once daily for 12 weeks. The primary endpoint was between group change in home SBP measurement. Secondary outcomes included change in 6-minute walking distance (6MWD) and measures of endothelial function (reactive hyperaemia index (RHI) and augmentation index (AIx75)) using an EndoPAT device. Plasma nitrate and platelet function were also measured. RESULTS: Compared to placebo, active treatment lowered SBP (Hodges-Lemman treatment effect MD[95% CI]; -4.5[-3.0 to -5.9] improved 6MWD (+30.0 m [15.7 to 44.2], p<0.001), RHI +0.34 (0.03 to 0.63) p=0.03, and AIx75 -7.61% [-14.3 to -0.95], p=0.026. CONCLUSIONS: In people with COPD, prolonged dietary nitrate supplementation in the form of beetroot juice produces a sustained reduction in BP, associated with an improvement in endothelial function and exercise capacity