Analytical tools to determine mycotoxins and modified mycotoxins

Identifier:  TDX:2855

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX2855

Authors:  Miró Abella, Eugènia

Abstract:
Controlling contaminants in food is a priority for human and animal health and one of the major concerns of authorities across all over the world. In food and feed samples, small and secondary metabolites produced by filamentous fungi, known as mycotoxins, can appear. The central focus of mycotoxin research is divided into two main topics: determining their presence with the development of robust determination methods and studying their toxicological effects. Accordingly, the experimental part of this doctoral thesis is divided into these two central strands. As the major sources of mycotoxin contamination are agricultural products, especially cereals and their derivatives, the main objective of the first section of this thesis is to develop new analytical methods to determine the incidence of targeted mycotoxins, including modified mycotoxins, in cereal and cereal derivative samples. These analytical methods also involved the optimisation of the extraction techniques followed by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. The mycotoxins found in the analysed food samples over the course of this doctoral thesis demonstrate their prevalence in the food chain of humans and animals and the importance of control them through robust, selective and simple analytical methods. In the second section, there is an evaluation of the consequences of consuming food contaminated by mycotoxins. To achieve this, for the first time, metagenomic research was performed on rat gut samples after the consumption of a mycotoxin at low concentration levels in order to determine whether mycotoxin consumption can trigger any bacterial changes. The optimisation of the analytical methodology for faecal samples was also explored. Then, a study a large number of possible derivatives biologically generated by rats after nivalenol consumption was also included in the second section. This has led to the identification of new compounds to be explored in further research.