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- Fundamentos de ChIP-SeqPublication . Matos, PauloUma visão geral sobre a metodologia de ChIP-Seq e o procedimento de análise e interpretação dos dados por esta gerados.
- An emergent challenge: mycotoxins, climatic change and human healthPublication . Alvito, PaulaDuring the past 60 years, it has become clear that the world has to deal with mycotoxin exposure. Mycotoxins are a group of naturally occurring toxic chemical substances, produced mainly by filamentous fungi that can produce adverse health effects when consumed by humans and animals. It is known that mycotoxins have nephrotoxic, genotoxic, teratogenic, carcinogenic, and cytotoxic properties and, as a consequence, these toxins may cause liver carcinomas, renal dysfunctions, and also immunosuppressed states. Changes in temperature, precipitation, and atmospheric CO2 concentration are expected to carry along an increased risk of mycotoxin contamination mainly associated with cereal crops in the field, and might have an impact on the geographical distribution of certain cereals, mycotoxigenic fungi and their mycotoxins. The large impacts of global warming projected on crops worldwide will subsequently influence food security, by reducing yields and thus food availability, and food and feed safety. Despite prevention methods and strict regulations, mycotoxins are still present in the feed and food chain, and could produce mycotoxicoses. Mycotoxicosis can occur at every stages of life, and it can affect the individuals differently according to their age. The harmful effects of mycotoxins on cell division can lead to drastic consequences, which are even more severe during intrauterine life. Within this context, a recent ongoing project on early-life exposure to mycotoxins and its impact on health, EarlyMYCO (PTDC/MED-TOX/28762/2017), will be presented and discussed, as a contribute to evaluate mycotoxins exposure of pregnant women and child and associated risks, during first 1000 days of life.
- Upstream open reading frames (uORFs) as translational regulators in human diseasePublication . Fernandes, Rafael; Romão, LuísaThe messenger RNA (mRNA) translation process is a key step of gene expression, whose regulation allows the cell to rapidly change protein synthesis in a spatio-temporal manner in response to different stimuli. Translation comprises four steps – initiation, elongation, termination, and ribosome recycling – being initiation the rate-limiting step that is, therefore, prone to a tighter regulation. Among the regulatory elements and factors that can act in this stage, there are the upstream open reading frames (uORFs), which represent coding regions defined by an initiation codon in the 5’ leader sequence [also known as 5’ untranslated region (UTR)] of the mRNAs, in frame with an upstream termination codon or overlapped with the main open reading frame (mORF) that encodes the protein. These cis-acting elements are typically considered to be repressors of downstream translation in basal conditions since they may function as “barriers” to ribosomes, impeding them to reach the mORF.
- Evaluation Plan of the Sustainable Capacity Building Programme (European Health Information Training Programme - EHITP)Publication . Garcia, Ana Cristina; Sousa Uva, Mafalda; Roquette, Rita; Gómez, Verónica; Dias, Carlos MatiasThe InfAcT (Information for Action) project is a Joint Action of the European Commission's 3rd Health Programme, which includes 28 EU Member States and Associated Countries. The main goal of InfAct is to build an infrastructure of a health information system for a stronger European Union and to strengthen its core elements. Its vision is to improve the use of health data and information for a healthier Europe. Portugal leads the Work Package 6 (WP6) of this project, through a team of professionals from the Directorate-General of Health (who coordinates), the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine -NOVA University of Lisbon and the National Institute of Health Doctor Ricardo Jorge. WP6 includes, among other tasks, the development of a Flagship Capacity Building Programme and its evaluation. The proposal of the programme was presented through the document “INFACT - Sustainable Capacity Building Programme (European Health Information Training Programme - EHITP), Task 6.2 – February 2020”. As provided in the InfAct project protocol, the evaluation of the proposal of the EHITP will consider the feasibility of the programme, the coverage of the required components, and the target population, among other components. An evaluation process based on the integration of the evaluation framework of the World Health Organization (WHO) and of the Centers for Disease and Control (CDC) framework for Programmes Evaluation in Public Health will be used. As such, the evaluation of the European Health Information Training Programme will take place in 4 phases: phase 1 - engage stakeholders, describe the programme, focus the evaluation design -; phase 2 - gather credible evidence, justify conclusions-; phase 3 -reporting of results and recommendations -; and phase 4 - incorporation of evaluation recommendations into a new version of the European Health Information Training Programme.
- One Health and Climate Change: are mycotoxins connecting the circle?Publication . Assunção, Ricardo; Martins, Carla; Viegas, Carla; Viegas, SusanaOne health (OH) is a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach, aiming to achieve optimal health outcomes recognizing the interconnection between humans, animals, and their shared environment. Traditionally, the OH approach considered infectious diseases that can be spread between animals and humans, e.g. rabies, brucellosis, and food-borne diseases as salmonellosis or campylobacteriosis. In fact, food represents an important driver in the context of OH, uniting the three aspects: agents could infect animals, that could be introduced in the food chain and reaching humans through the environment, affecting their health. Under the context of climate change, in addition to the effects on the infectious diseases related to food, mycotoxins assume particular concern, when health impact is discussed. Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of fungi, highly dependent on the environmental conditions, such as temperature or humidity that, if favorable to fungi growth, will increase mycotoxins' risk to animals (via feed contamination) and humans (via crop contamination and consumption, and animal-based contaminated foods). Additionally, animal production is an occupational setting in which exposure to mycotoxins has been frequently reported and feed has been identified as a source of contamination in the workplace environment resulting in worker’s exposure. The present communication aims to contribute to set the scene regarding mycotoxins in the context of climate change using an OH approach, an underexplored perspective. A case study considering mycotoxins feed contamination in a dairy farm, considering the potential implications for animal health, milk contamination and worker’s exposure will be assessed. The main results pointed out that an adequate OH for dairy production should address the different perspectives of OH, especially under a context highly challenging, as the anticipated climate change scenario.
- Mycotoxins under the Human Biomonitoting Initiative (HBM4EU): challenges in the near futurePublication . Alvito, Paula; Vasco, Elsa; Assunção, Ricardo; Martins, Carla; Louro, H.; Namorado, S.; Viegas, S.; Silva, MJMycotoxins are natural toxins produced by several fungi genera that contaminate cereals, fruits and other food. The ingestion of contaminated food and feed may result not only in acute disease but also in chronic conditions, e.g., reproductive toxicity, inflammatory bowel diseases or cancer either in animals or humans. It is thus of high relevance to use a one health approach to monitor environmental, human and animal exposure to mycotoxins and their effects, in order to decrease mycotoxins-associated outcomes. In the Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU, https://www.hbm4eu.eu/the-project/), following a systematic prioritization exercise which brought together national and EU level policy needs for knowledge on chemical exposure and health outcomes, mycotoxins (Deoxynivalenol and Fumonisin B1) were considered as priority substances around which the HBM4EU research programme is being developed. Within the three pillars of the HBM4EU, namely, 1. Science to Policy, 2. European HBM Platform and 3. Exposure and Health, answers to several identified policy questions related to mycotoxins exposure and effects are being debated, including the current levels of human exposure and time trends in Europe, geographical differences and highly exposed subgroups (including workers), the availability of toxicokinetics data, methods for analyzing mycotoxins and their metabolites in human samples, the potential for using effect biomarkers, the use of biomonitoring data under a risk assessment framework, derivation of HBM guidance values. During this presentation, challenges related to those questions and human biomonitoring of mycotoxins will be presented and discussed in the perspective of a one health approach.