Biomonitoring of mycotoxin exposure using urinary biomarker approaches: a review

Abstract

Due to the dangerous toxic effects of mycotoxin ingestion via food products, several studies were performed in order to estimate human exposure to dietary mycotoxins as important factor in risk assessment of these food contaminants. The exposure to mycotoxins can be evaluated by using some biomarkers especially in urine among several bio-specimens. The current review was undertaken to provide an overview regarding mycotoxin biomarkers in urine and presenting the recent data on human biomonitoring of aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, fumonisin, zearalenone, and deoxynivalenol using urinary biomarkers. Multi-mycotoxin biomarker approaches for assessment of combined exposure to multiple mycotoxins are also discussed.

Keywords:

• Mycotoxins
• human biomonitoring
• urine
• biomarkers
• health risk

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest relevant to this study.

Additional information

Funding

The authors thank the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) – grant no. 400649/2014–4, for financial support and fellowships. This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001.