Advancing Global Health Surveillance of Mycotoxin Exposures using Minimally Invasive Sampling Techniques: A...

Area of Science:

• Environmental Health
• Toxicology
• Analytical Chemistry

Background:

• Mycotoxins produced by fungi contaminate staple crops, posing significant health risks through human consumption and inhalation.
• Widespread exposure necessitates reliable methods for monitoring human exposure levels.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review and summarize studies developing and validating minimally invasive assays for mycotoxin detection in human biological samples.
• To highlight future directions for improving and deploying these assays as global public health tools.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search of PubMed, Embase, and CINAHL databases.
• Extraction and critical review of key assay performance metrics for dried blood spot (DBS), dried serum spot (DSS), and volumetric tip microsampling (VTS) assays.
• Identification of 11 relevant published reports on mycotoxin measurement using these methods.

Main Results:

• Multimycotoxin assays adapted for DBS/DSS and VTS have demonstrated sufficient laboratory validation for population health studies.
• The reviewed assays primarily focused on ochratoxins, aflatoxins, and fumonisins.
• Current methods show promise for large-scale human biomonitoring.

Conclusions:

• Validated minimally invasive sampling techniques, including DBS and VTS, are crucial for public health surveillance of mycotoxin exposure.
• Future research should expand the range of detectable mycotoxins, improve assay sensitivity, and validate methods across diverse populations.
• Deployment of low-cost, ultrasensitive, and minimally invasive methods can inform policies to reduce global mycotoxin exposure inequities.