Browsing by Author "Nunes, C."
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- 3rd HBM-PT Workshop on Human BioMonitoring in Portugal - earlyMYCO: assessing the risk associated to early-life exposure to mycotoxins: Book of abstractsPublication . Assunção, Ricardo; Alvito, Paula; Ferreira, M.; Bastos, P.; Nunes, C.; De Boevre, Marthe; Duarte, E.; Nunes, B.; Namorado, S.; Silva, S.; Pires, S.; Martins, C.Livro de resumos do 3rd HBM-PT Workshop on Human BioMonitoring in Portugal sob o tema “Risk Assessment”, abrangendo trabalhos em torno das seguintes temáticas: Exposição a produtos químicos e efeitos na saúde humana; Influência da mudança do ambiente na exposição humana a produtos químicos; Integração de dados de monitorização humana e ambiental; Tradução dos dados de biomonitorização humana em ações regulamentares sobre saúde humana e ambiental. O evento pretende reunir investigadores, representantes de instituições reguladoras e restantes stakeholders, promovendo o debate sobre a aplicação da biomonitorização humana nas políticas de saúde e ambiente, bem como na avaliação de risco para a saúde e possibilitando a apresentação de resultados, na forma de comunicações orais e/ou e-posters. Este workshop é organizado pela National Hub portuguesa em Biomonitorização Humana, constituída no âmbito do programa europeu conjunto HBM4EU - European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (https://www.hbm4eu.eu/), da qual fazem parte a FCT, a Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente, a Direção-Geral da Saúde, o Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge, a Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa e a Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde do Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa.
- earlyMYCO – a mother & child cohort in PortugalPublication . Assunção, Ricardo; Martins, Carla; Costa, A.; Serrano, D.; De Boevre, Marthe; Vidal, A.; De Saeger, Sarah; Alvito, Paula; Vidigal, C.; Almeida, E.; Nunes, C.Background: Early-life exposure occurs during gestation through transfer of toxic substances present in the maternal diet to the fetus and later on, during lactation, through the breast milk. Food chemical contaminants as mycotoxins are well known carcinogenic, nephrotoxic, hepatotoxic and immunosuppressive compounds. Recent human biomonitoring data revealed that Portuguese population is exposed to mycotoxins. These results emphasized the need for assessing the prenatal and lactation exposure to mycotoxins in a critical and vulnerable period of life. This study aims for the first time in Portugal to assess the early-life exposure to mycotoxins through a mother & child cohort, thus contributing to the knowledge of the exposome of Portuguese population. Methods: Participants are recruited in primary health care units in Lisbon (Portugal) during pregnancy (1st trimester). Four moments of observation are expected within this study: 2nd trimester of pregnancy (mother), and 1st week of life, 1st month of life, 6th month (mother & child). Each moment includes the collection of biological samples (blood, urine, breast milk) and the application of sociodemographic and food consumption questionnaires. Biological samples will be analyzed by liquid chromatography with detection by mass spectrometry for the detection and quantification of 45 mycotoxins’ biomarkers. Results: Data presented include results of mycotoxins’ biomarkers from 12 participants for blood and urine samples. Results obtained will be used to estimate the probable daily intake of each mycotoxin, to perform risk characterization and estimate the burden associated with this exposure. Conclusions: It is expected that results obtained within earlyMYCO will contribute to have a deeper knowledge on exposure of vulnerable population groups (pregnant women and infants) and to understand the impact of early-life exposure to mycotoxins. The biobank will be available for further research and future studies will be developed in order to have a broader knowledge on the exposome of Portuguese population.
- earlyMYCO – a mother & child cohort in Portugal to assess exposure to mycotoxinsPublication . Martins, C.; Assunção, R.; Serrano, D.; De Boevre, M.; De Saeger, S.; Alvito, P.; Vidigal, C.; Lamy, E.; Nunes, C.Aim: This study aims for the first time in Portugal to assess the early-life exposure to mycotoxins through a mother & child cohort.
- earlyMYCO – a mother & child pilot study to assess early-life exposure to mycotoxins in PortugalPublication . Martins, C.; Assunção, R.; Costa, A.; Serrano, D.; Namorado, S.; Vidigal, C.; Almeida, E.; Alvito, P.; Nunes, C.Early-life exposure occurs during gestation through transfer of toxic substances present in the maternal diet to the fetus and later during lactation, through the breast milk. Mycotoxins are well known carcinogenic, nephrotoxic, hepatotoxic, and immunosuppressive food chemical contaminants. Recently, human biomonitoring data revealed that Portuguese population is exposed to mycotoxins. These results emphasized the need for assessing the prenatal and lactation exposure to mycotoxins in a vulnerable period of life. The earlyMYCO project (PTDC/MED-TOX/28762/2017) aimed, for the first time, to develop and implement a pilot study to assess the early-life exposure to mycotoxins through a mother & child cohort, and to identify the associated challenges, thus contributing to the development of future studies and to the knowledge of the exposome of Portuguese population. Participants were recruited in primary health care units in Lisbon (Portugal) during pregnancy (1st trimester) and followed-up in three moments of observation: 2nd trimester of pregnancy (mother), and 1st and 6th months of the child’s life (mother & child), with the collection of biological samples (blood, urine, breast milk) and the application of sociodemographic and food consumption questionnaires (food frequency and 24h dietary recall). All the participants of the earlyMYCO pilot study (n = 19) reported more than nine years of education, with 37% reporting 10- 12 years and 63% reporting more than 12 years. Regarding the household monthly income, 42% reported a monthly income above 1941€, with most of participants (95%) being workers for remuneration or profit. Dairy products, bread, tea, and coffee were reported as the food items with higher frequency of consumption. The 24h dietary recall questionnaires confirmed these results. Detailed analysis of the data gathered allowed also to highlight the high consumption of meat, fish and vegetables. Regarding infants, 22% were fed with infant formula and 78% were exclusively breastfed. It is expected that results obtained within earlyMYCO pilot study will contribute to a deeper knowledge on exposure of vulnerable population groups (pregnant women and infants) and to the understanding of the impact of early-life exposure to mycotoxins.
- earlyMYCO project - Early-life exposure to mycotoxins: a neglected issue?Publication . Alvito, Paula; Amador, P.; Broeiro, Paula; Caldeira, T; De Boevre, Marthe; De Saeger, Sarah; Duarte, E.; Ferreira, M.; Lamy, Elisabete; Mexia, R.; Namorado, S.; Nunes, B.; Nunes, C.; Pires, S.; Silva, M.J.; Silva, Susana; Vidal, A.; Martins, C.; Assunção, R.Recent studies under MYCOMIX project reported that Portuguese children until 3 years old are exposed to multiple mycotoxins through food consumption, constituting a potential health threat. Aflatoxins (carcinogenic toxins) represented the main risk contributors and deoxynivalenol (a non-carcinogenic toxin associated with immunological and gastrointestinal toxic effects) showed the highest daily intake of the studied mycotoxins. These results opened new research perspectives and emphasized the need to accurately assess the prenatal and lactational exposure to mycotoxins in a critical and vulnerable period of life. Early-life exposure of children occurs during gestation through transfer of toxic substances present in the maternal diet to the fetus and later on, during lactation, through the breast milk. Considering this, the national project earlyMYCO – Early-life exposure to MYCOtoxins and its impact on health aims at assessing the risk of early-life exposure to mycotoxins. earlyMYCO proposes to answer several key questions including what extent are pregnant women and infants until six months exposed to mycotoxins in Portugal? Is this exposure a health threat? With this purpose, earlyMYCO gathered a multidisciplinar team with expertise on medical sciences, public health and toxicology to perform i) an epidemiological study, including the recruitment of pregnant women and infants, food survey and biological sample collection and ii) mycotoxin exposure assessment in pregnant women and infants using biomarkers of exposure. The epidemiological study was approved by INSA’s Ethical Committee and will be conducted in the Primary Health Care of Central Lisboa. The biomonitoring study will use advanced analytical methodologies and will provide data to perform the exposure assessment. Due to the increasing prevalence in food commodities, mycotoxins appear to be important, but often neglected contaminants in terms of health impact on human population especially in vulnerable groups as children. It is expected that results obtained within earlyMYCO will contribute to understand the impact of mycotoxin early-life exposure.
- earlyMYCO: assessing the risk associated to early-life exposure to mycotoxinsPublication . Assunção, Ricardo; Alvito, Paula; Ferreira, M.; Bastos, P.; Nunes, C.; De Boevre, Marthe; Duarte, E.; Nunes, B.; Namorado, S.; Silva, S.; Pires, S.; Martins, CarlaA number of health disorders has been associated to exposure to hazardous chemicals during the first 1000 days of life. Therefore, a proper risk assessment built on accurate data assumes particular im-portance to evaluate the potential impact that early-life exposure could represent in adulthood. Mycotox-ins are secondary fungal metabolites that might cause harmful effects in humans and animals. Recent studies showed that Portuguese young children are exposed to multiple mycotoxins through food con-sumption which could constitute a health concern. However, earlier exposure to these compounds re-mains unexplored. earlyMYCO – Early-life exposure to MYCOtoxins and its impact on health, a national funded project, intends to contribute to clarify this issue evaluating the health effects of early-life exposure of Portuguese mother-and-child pairs to mycotoxins and assessing the associated risk. The Estimated Daily Intake, using human biomonitoring data, will be compared with reference dose values. For those mycotoxins representing a health concern, an estimate of the associated probable health-impact will be performed by calculating the associated burden in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALY). Preliminary results of exposure to mycotoxins through food consumption (cereal-based foods) in young children (≤ 3 years old) revealed a potential adverse health effect for percentiles of intake of aflatoxins above or equal to P50 (corresponding to 0.041 ng/kg body weight/day or higher). Our results will contribute to reach an accurate risk assessment framework and to establish and prioritize preventive measures to reduce exposure to chemicals, especially for vulnerable population groups as pregnant women and infants.
- Exposição precoce a contaminantes alimentares e avaliação de risco-beneficio de alimentos: dois desafios da nova décadaPublication . Alvito, Paula; Duarte, Elsa; Ferreira, M.; Nunes, C.; Pires, S.; Martins, Carla; Assunção, R.As escolhas alimentares influenciam diretamente a dieta bem como o aporte diário de nutrientes. A sensibilização e a capacitação dos cidadãos para escolhas alimentares mais saudáveis é também determinante para uma estratégia para a promoção da alimentação saudável. Os alimentos pelos quais optamos apresentam compostos com efeitos benéficos, no entanto, alguns podem apresentar potencial efeito negativo para a saúde, como por exemplo, os contaminantes alimentares. A avaliação de risco-benefício (RBA) de alimentos estima os benefícios e riscos para os seres humanos decorrentes da ingestão de um alimento, um componente alimentar ou uma dieta específica, e integra-os utilizando ferramentas que permitam essa comparação. O projeto internacional RiskBenefit4EU, financiado pela EFSA (https://riskbenefit4eu.wordpress.com/), pretende, ao integrar as perspetivas microbiológicas, toxicológicas e nutricionais, contribuir para o desenvolvimento, na Europa e em Portugal, de uma nova cultura no âmbito da segurança alimentar e nutrição, sugerindo linhas de orientação para a realização de uma alimentação mais segura e saudável. A exposição a contaminantes químicos nos primeiros 1000 dias de vida tem sido associada a alterações de saúde, constituindo também um domínio emergente de investigação. A exposição precoce a contaminantes ocorre durante a gestação pela transferência de substâncias tóxicas da dieta materna para o feto através da placenta e, posteriormente, durante a lactação, através do leite materno. As micotoxinas, contaminantes químicos presentes nos alimentos, são compostos tóxicos com efeitos carcinogénicos, nefrotóxicos, hepatotóxicos e imunossupressores. Estudos recentes evidenciaram que as crianças portuguesas até aos 3 anos estão expostas a múltiplas micotoxinas através da alimentação, o que constitui um risco potencial para a sua saúde (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsKaz3mt2J4). Neste contexto, é pertinente questionar qual o impacto de uma exposição precoce a micotoxinas na saúde da criança e do futuro adulto. O projeto nacional earlyMYCO, financiado pela FCT, pretende assim responder a questões como: estarão as grávidas e lactentes até aos 6 meses de idade expostos a micotoxinas? Esta exposição representa um risco para a sua saúde? Nesta comunicação pretende-se apresentar e discutir dois projetos complementares a decorrer no Departamento de Alimentação e Nutrição, do INSA, e que constituem dois desafios atuais relacionados com as escolhas alimentares.
- Exposure assessment of Portuguese population to multiple mycotoxins: the human biomonitoring approachPublication . Martins, Carla; Vidal, A.; De Boevre, M.; De Saeger, S.; Nunes, C.; Torres, D.; Goios, A.; Lopes, C.; Assunção, R; Alvito, P.Mycotoxins constitute a relevant group of food contaminants with several associated health outcomes such as estrogenic, immunotoxic, nephrotoxic and teratogenic effects. Although scarce data are available in Portugal, human biomonitoring studies have been globally developed to assess the exposure to mycotoxins at individual level. In order to overcome this lack of data, the present study concerned the analysis of mycotoxins in 24h urine and first-morning urine paired samples from 94 participants enrolled within the scope of the National Food, Nutrition, and Physical Activity Survey of the Portuguese General Population (2015–2016). Following a salt assisted matrix extraction, urine samples were analysed by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry for the simultaneous determination of 37 urinary mycotoxins’ biomarkers and data obtained used to estimate the probable daily intake as well as the risk characterization applying the Hazard Quotient approach. Results revealed the exposure of Portuguese population to zearalenone, deoxynivalenol, ochratoxin A, alternariol, citrinin and fumonisin B1 through the quantification in 24h urine and first-morning urine paired samples. Risk characterization data revealed a potential concern to some reported mycotoxins since the reference intake values were exceeded by some of the considered participants. Alternariol was identified for the first time in urine samples from a European country; however, risk characterization was not performed due to lack of reference intake value. These results confirmed mycotoxins as part of the human exposome of the Portuguese population reinforcing the need for further studies regarding the determinants of exposure.
- Exposure Assessment to Mycotoxins in a Portuguese Fresh Bread Dough Company by Using a Multi-Biomarker ApproachPublication . Viegas, S.; Assunção, R.; Nunes, C.; Osteresch, B.; Twaruzek, M.; Martins, C.; Alvito, P.; Almeida, A.; Viegas, C.Mycotoxins are toxic mold metabolites that can persist in environment long after the fungi species responsible for their production disappear. Critical workplace for mycotoxins presence has already been studied and nowadays it is possible to recognize that exposure to mycotoxins through inhalation occurs due to their presence in dust. This study aimed to assess occupational co-exposure to multiple mycotoxins in a fresh bread dough company, an occupational setting not studied until now. Occupational exposure assessment to mycotoxins was done using a LC-MS/MS urinary multi-biomarker approach. Twenty-one workers and nineteen individuals that were used as controls participated in the study. Workers/controls (spot-urine) and environment (settled dust) samples were collected and analyzed. Concerning workers group, DON-GlcA, and OTA were the most prevalent biomarkers (>LOD), 66% and 90.5%, respectively. In the control group, OTA was also one of the most detected (68%) followed by CIT (58%) and DON-GlcA (58%). DON was the mycotoxin measured in high amounts in the settled dust sample (58.2 ng/g). Both workers and controls are exposed to several mycotoxins simultaneously. The workers group, due to their high contact with flour dust, revealed a higher exposure to DON. Considering these results, risk management measures must be applied including specific and adequate health surveillance programs in order to avoid exposure and consequently the associated health consequences..
- Host factors associated to false negative and indeterminate results in an interferon‐γ release assay in patients with active tuberculosisPublication . Santos, J.A.; Duarte, R.; Nunes, C.Information on host factors that contribute to false negative and indeterminate results in interferon-γ release assays (IGRA) are critical to improve the usefulness of these tests in the fight against tuberculosis (TB) epidemics. The aim of this study was to estimate and compare the sensitivity of an IGRA and the tuberculin skin test (TST), independently and as a combined approach, in patients with TB and to identify risk factors associated with false negative and indeterminate IGRA results.