T-2 mycotoxin: toxicological effects and decontamination strategies

// Manish Adhikari 1 , Bhawana Negi 2 , Neha Kaushik 3 , Anupriya Adhikari 4 , Abdulaziz A. Al-Khedhairy 5 , Nagendra Kumar Kaushik 1 and Eun Ha Choi 1 1 Department of Electrical and Biological Physics, Plasma Bioscience Research Center, Kwangwoon University, Seoul, Republic of Korea 2 Department of Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering, G B Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India 3 Department of Life Science, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea 4 Department of Chemistry, Kanya Gurukul Campus, Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar, India 5 Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Correspondence to: Eun Ha Choi, email: // Nagendra Kumar Kaushik, email: // Keywords : trichothecenes, oxidative damage, apoptosis, herbal antioxidant compounds, decontamination Received : December 22, 2016 Accepted : February 08, 2017 Published : February 16, 2017 Abstract Mycotoxins are highly diverse secondary metabolites produced in nature by a wide variety of fungus which causes food contamination, resulting in mycotoxicosis in animals and humans. In particular, trichothecenes mycotoxin produced by genus fusarium is agriculturally more important worldwide due to the potential health hazards they pose. It is mainly metabolized and eliminated after ingestion, yielding more than 20 metabolites with the hydroxy trichothecenes-2 toxin being the major metabolite. Trichothecene is hazardously intoxicating due to their additional potential to be topically absorbed, and their metabolites affect the gastrointestinal tract, skin, kidney, liver, and immune and hematopoietic progenitor cellular systems. Sensitivity to this type of toxin varying from dairy cattle to pigs, with the most sensitive endpoints being neural, reproductive, immunological and hematological effects. The mechanism of action mainly consists of the inhibition of protein synthesis and oxidative damage to cells followed by the disruption of nucleic acid synthesis and ensuing apoptosis. In this review, the possible hazards, historical significance, toxicokinetics, and the genotoxic and cytotoxic effects along with regulatory guidelines and recommendations pertaining to the trichothecene mycotoxin are discussed. Furthermore, various techniques utilized for toxin determination, pathophysiology, prophylaxis and treatment using herbal antioxidant compounds and regulatory guidelines and recommendations are reviewed. The prospects of the trichothecene as potential hazardous agents, decontamination strategies and future perspectives along with plausible therapeutic uses are comprehensively described.