Browsing by Author "Pires, S."
Now showing 1 - 10 of 17
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- 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.
- Aflatoxin exposure through food consumption – are we ready to face the risk associated to climate change?Publication . Assunção, Ricardo; Alvito, Paula; Jakobsen, Lea; Pires, S.Climate change (CC) has been indicated as a driver for food safety issues worldwide, mainly due to the impact on the occurrence of food safety hazards at various stages of food chain. Mycotoxins, natural contaminants produced by fungi, are mentioned to be one of the most important food safety hazards affected by CC. Aflatoxins, which have the highest acute and chronic toxicity of all mycotoxins, assumes particular importance within this context. A recent study predicted aflatoxin contamination in maize and wheat crops in Europe within the next 100 years. The authors concluded that aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is predicted to become a food safety issue in Europe, especially in the +2 °C scenario, the most probable scenario of CC expected for the next years. In Europe, previous reported studies estimated mean dietary exposures to aflatoxins for the general population from all food sources ranging from 0.93 ng kg bw-1 day-1 to 2.4 ng kg bw-1 day-1. In Portugal, an estimation of a probable daily exposure to aflatoxins of 0.501 ng kg bw-1 day-1 by the Portuguese population was reported. In addition, other authors also estimated aflatoxin exposure of Portuguese children (1-3 years) and reported a potential health concern associated to the exposure, wherein AFB1 was the main contributor. Considering the potential risks associated to Portuguese exposure to aflatoxins through diet, and the potential influence of CC on the temperature, humidity, precipitation and consequently on the mycotoxin contamination of food products, this presentation will discuss the CC impact on public health. To face this objective, burden of disease (BoD) associated to aflatoxin exposure of the Portuguese population will be estimated, for the first time, using a model of three components: an exposure, health-outcome and disability adjusted life years (DALY) modules. BoD of different scenarios will be discussed in light of the current knowledge about recent estimates of CC impact in Europe.
- Climate change and aflatoxins exposure in Portugal – could we expect a significant health risk?Publication . Assunção, R.; Martins, C.; Viegas, S.; Viegas, C.; Jakobsen, Lea S.; Pires, S.; Alvito, P.In recent decades, changes in climate have caused impacts on natural and human systems on all continents and across the oceans. Climate change (CC) has become one of the most critical issues for the sustainable development of human societies and the functioning of ecosystems on earth. Portugal is highly vulnerable to CC impacts due to its Europe south-western geographical situation, mainly through decreasing annual precipitation, more intense extreme weather and climate events. In fact, CC is considered as one of the biggest global threats to human health of the 21st century and its effects will undoubtedly influence agricultural systems and food safety. Due to the potential impact on the occurrence of food hazards, increased concern has being aroused. Mycotoxins, natural contaminants produced by fungi, are among the most important of such hazards, especially due to their potential to establish deleterious health conditions. From all known mycotoxins, aflatoxins stand to the most toxic for humans. Dietary aflatoxins exposure is considered a significant risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Considering the impact of CC in mycotoxin contamination of food products available in Portugal, the present study aims to discuss the potential influence of CC in the health risk associated to aflatoxins dietary exposure of Portuguese population. To tackle this objective, the estimated number of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the associated burden of disease in terms of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) were derived. Results showed that the number of extra cases of HCC associated to Portuguese aflatoxin dietary exposure ranged from 0.52 and 2.00. The derived DALYs ranged between 8.0 and 30.9. It is expected that in the future the number of DALYs and the associated HCC due to aflatoxin exposure should increase due to CC. These results should represent an alert for the potential consequences of an incompletely explored perspective of CC – the health impact of the human exposure to aflatoxins. Politics and decision-makers should be involved and committed to implement effective measures to deal with CC issues and to reduce its possible consequences.
- Diagnóstico Citogenético em Líquidos Amnióticos Realizado entre 2000-2011 no Centro de Genética Médica Jacinto Magalhães, INSA, IPPublication . Mota Freitas, M.; Candeias, C.; Lopes, E.; Oliveira, F.P.; Aguiar, J.; Ribeiro, M.C.; Pires, S.; Oliva Teles, N.; Correia, H.; Fonseca Silva, M.L.Introdução: O diagnóstico pré-natal citogenético efetuado em líquido amniótico é um método seguro e fiável para deteção de anomalias cromossómicas fetais, sendo habitualmente realizado a partir das 15 semanas de gestação. Obtêm-se resultados, em média, após 8-10 dias de cultura dos amniócitos. Objectivo: Apresentar a estatística dos resultados obtidos na análise citogenética de líquidos amnióticos realizada na Unidade de Citogenética do Centro de Genética Médica Jacinto Magalhães entre 2000 e 2011, comparando-os com o descrito na literatura. Material e métodos: Entre janeiro de 2000 e dezembro de 2011 foram processados 10149 líquidos amnióticos. Os motivos para a realização da amniocentese foram, nomeadamente, idade materna avançada, anomalias ecográficas, marcadores ecográficos, rastreio bioquímico positivo, familiares com anomalias cromossómicas e risco de doença monogénica. Foram realizadas culturas de amniócitos de acordo com as técnicas convencionais de citogenética e os cromossomas identificados com bandas GTG ou GTL. Sempre que necessário efetuaram-se estudos de citogenética molecular (FISH) com as sondas adequadas ao esclarecimento do caso. Resultados: A análise revelou 342 cariótipos anormais (3,4%) dos quais 234 tinham anomalias numéricas e 108 estruturais. Os Síndromes de Down, de Edwards e de Turner foram as anomalias mais frequentes. Vinte e três culturas não cresceram, representando uma percentagem de 0,2% de insucesso. Conclusões: Os autores correlacionam os resultados obtidos com as indicações clínicas fornecidas e comparam-nas com o descrito na literatura. O presente estudo poderá ser utilizado para o estabelecimento de uma base de dados a nível nacional.
- 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.
- Human health risk–benefit assessment of fish and other seafood: a scoping reviewPublication . Thomsen, S.T.; Assunção, Ricardo; Afonso, C.; Boué, G.; Cardoso, C.; Cubadda, F.; Garre, A.; Kruisselbrink, J.; Mantovani, A.; Pitter, J.; Poulsen, M.; Verhagen, H.; Ververis, E.; van der Voet, H.; Watzl, B.; Pires, S.Fish and other seafood are important sources of nutrients, but they are also sources of chemical contaminants that may cause adverse health effects. This article aimed to identify existing risk–benefit assessments (RBA) of fish, shellfish, and other seafood, compare methodologies, discuss differences and commonalities in findings, and identify limitations and ways forward for future studies. We conducted a scoping review of the scientific literature of studies in all languages published from 2000 through April 2019. We identified 106 RBA of fish and other seafood across Europe, Asia, North America, Africa, and at the global level. Studies were heterogeneous in terms of types of fish and other seafood considered, beneficial and adverse compounds assessed, and overall methodology. Collected data showed that a diet consisting of a variety of lean and fatty fish and other seafood is recommended for the overall population and that women of childbearing age and children should limit the consumption of fish and other seafood types that have a high likelihood of contamination. Our review emphasizes the need for evidence-based, up-to-date, and harmonized approaches in RBA in general.
- Interstitial deletion 15q21 and Prader-Willi like syndrome phenotype: Case reportPublication . Pires, S.; Oliva Teles, N.; Ribeiro, J.; Mota Freitas, M.; Marques, B.; Reis, G.; Correia, H.; Fonseca e Silva, M.L.Introduction: Chromosome 15q interstitial deletions not involving the Prader-Willi/Angelman region are uncommon and poorly characterized. Very few cases of different segmental losses involving the 15q21 region have been reported at cytogenetic level. All the described patients present with moderate to several mental retardation and characteristic facial dysmorphic features. Some authors compare the similarity between the phenotype of these patients with some features of Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS). Methods: We report the case of a girl aged 8 referred for conventional cytogenetics and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for the PWS region, presenting with mental retardation, almond-shaped eyes, obesity, small hands with short fingers and diminished pigmentation of the hair. Results: The chromosomal analysis revealed an interstitial deletion of the long arm of chromosome 15, apparently between 15q21 and 15q22. Deletion at 15q11.2 (Prader-Willi/Angelman critical region) was excluded by FISH. To establish the exact breakpoints molecular studies were performed using bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones spanning the 15q21.3 region. The absence of signal in this region defines the proband’s final karyotype as: 46,XX,del(15)(q21.3q21.3).ish del(15)(q21.3q21.3)(bA74K1-) Discussion: The authors emphasize the importance of complementary FISH and molecular studies in chromosomal abnormalities and compare the proband’s phenotype with similar cases described in the literature.
- Risk-benefit assessment in foods: a case study involving mycotoxinsPublication . Alvito, Paula; Assunção, Ricardo; Martins, C.; Viegas, S.; Fernandes, P.; Carvalho-Oliveira, I.; Torres, D.; Monteiro, S.; Nabais, P.; Membré, J.M.; Boué, G.; Persson, M.; Thompsen, S.; Jakobsen, L.; Pires, S.; Poulsen, M.State of the art. Data from a recent Portuguese national project that studied the toxic effects of children exposure (under 3 years old) to multiple mycotoxins in infant foods (MYCOMIX) reported the co-occurrence of 21 mycotoxins and metabolites present in breakfast cereals primarily marketed for children. This study showed that 96% of the analyzed breakfast cereal samples were contaminated with mycotoxins1,2. The output of this project also highlighted the knowledge gaps on the contra-balance beneficial health effect of these foods, and the need to determine the risk-benefit balance, since the evaluated food products, namely breakfast cereals, are simultaneously recognized vehicles of food components, like nutrients, vitamins and water soluble and insoluble fibers, which could be assumed as beneficial for children health.