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Topic Review
Indirect Effect of Pesticides
Pesticides can indirectly affect target and non-target species in ways that are often contrary to their intended use. Such effects are mediated through interactions with other species or the physical environment and depend on ecological mechanisms. Typical mechanisms are the release of herbivores from predation and release from competition among species with similar niches. 
  • 958
  • 05 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Ageritin from Pioppino Mushroom
Ageritin is a specific ribonuclease, extracted from the edible mushroom Cyclocybe aegerita (synonym Agrocybe aegerita), which cleaves a single phosphodiester bond located within the universally conserved alpha-sarcin loop (SRL) of 23–28S rRNAs.This toxin is the prototype of ribotoxin-like protein family present in edible mushroom and possesses antifungal/antiviral activities and selective cytotoxicity against tumor cells with potential use in biotechnological applications (as bio-insecticides or antitumor agents).
  • 934
  • 14 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Natural Bioactive Compounds: Toxicity/Safety Concerns
Although synthetic bioactive compounds are approved in many countries for food applications, they are becoming less and less welcome by consumers. Therefore, there has been an increasing interest in replacing these synthetic compounds by natural bioactive compounds. These natural compounds can be used as food additives to maintain the food quality, food safety and appeal, and as food supplements or nutraceuticals to correct nutritional deficiencies, maintain a suitable intake of nutrients, or to support physiological functions, respectively. Recent studies reveal that numerous food wastes, particularly fruit and vegetables byproducts, are a good source of bioactive compounds that can be extracted and reintroduced into the food chain as natural food additives or in food matrices for obtaining nutraceuticals and functional foods. This entry addresses general questions concerning the use of fruit and vegetables byproducts as new sources of natural bioactive compounds that are being addressed to foods as natural additives and supplements. Those bioactive compounds must follow the legal requirements and evaluations to assess the risks for human health and their toxicity must be considered before being launched into the market. To overcome the potential health risk while increasing the biological activity, stability and biodistribution of the supplements’ technological alternatives have been studied such as encapsulation of bioactive compounds into micro or nanoparticles or nanoemulsions. This will allow enhancing the stability and release along the gastrointestinal tract in a controlled manner into the specific tissues. This review summarizes the valorization path that a bioactive compound recovered from an agro-food waste can face from the moment their potentialities are exhibited until it reaches the final consumer and the safety and toxicity challenges, they may overcome.
  • 927
  • 23 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Antioxidant Properties of Taxifolin
Polyphenols are the most numerous and widely distributed compounds of plant origin. They are involved in various processes of the growth and development of plants, and their protection against unfavorable environmental factors. They enter the body of humans and animals with plant food. The intake of polyphenols or polyphenol-rich food products might be associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, and other diseases. More than 8000 polyphenols have been identified; of these, more than 4000 compounds belong to the group of flavonoids. In nature, polyphenols occur as monomers, oligomers, and polymers (proanthocyanidins, condensed tannins). There is also evidence indicating that, during the storage and aging of food products and beverages with a high content of flavonoids, the latter react with carbonyl compounds such as acetaldehyde, methylglyoxal, glyoxylic acid, and furfurol, which results in the formation of monomeric, oligomeric, and polymeric adducts.
  • 921
  • 23 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Dried Blood Spot in Toxicology
Dried Blood Spot (DBS) is becoming very popular in various medical fields, especially in toxicology. Nowadays, it is commonly used in newborn screening for inherited or congenital diseases. DBS does not require trained medical staff to collect the samples and can be effortlessly transported to the laboratory, which makes it an easy and quick procedure. A venous blood spot, collected from a finger or a heel, is put on the special paper card, which can result in a different distribution of blood and concentration of detecting substances. DBS enables drugs analysis, detecting substances of abuse as well as  trace elements. It also serves its purpose in newborn screening and testing in SARS-CoV-2 serology. DBS is certain to develop rapidly and become even more worldwide used.
  • 916
  • 16 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Potential Mechanisms of Poly- and Perfluoroalkylated Substances Carcinogenesis
Poly- and perfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS) are chemicals that persist and bioaccumulate in the environment and are found in nearly all human populations through several routes of exposure. Human occupational and community exposure to PFAS has been associated with several cancers, including cancers of the kidney, testis, prostate, and liver.
  • 884
  • 18 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Shiga Toxins
Shiga toxins (Stxs) are classic bacterial toxins and major virulence factors of toxigenic Shigella dysenteriae and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC). These toxins recognize a glycosphingolipid globotriaosylceramide (Gb3/CD77) as their receptor and inhibit protein synthesis in cells by cleaving 28S ribosomal RNA. They are the major cause of life-threatening complications such as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), associated with severe cases of EHEC infection, which is the leading cause of acute kidney injury in children.
  • 862
  • 08 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Detoxification of Fumonisins with Biological Antioxidants
Food safety is related to the national economy and people’s livelihood. Fumonisins are widely found in animal feed, feed raw materials, and human food. This can not only cause economic losses in animal husbandry but can also have carcinogenicity or teratogenicity and can be left in animal meat, eggs, and milk which may enter the human body and pose a serious threat to human health. Although there are many strategies to prevent fumonisins from entering the food chain, the traditional physical and chemical methods of mycotoxin removal have some disadvantages, such as an unstable effect, large nutrient loss, impact on the palatability of feed, and difficulty in mass production. As a safe, efficient, and environmentally friendly detoxification technology, biological detoxification attracts more and more attention from researchers and is gradually becoming an accepted technique. 
  • 837
  • 22 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Environmental Contaminants and Disparities in Women's Health
Environmental contaminants generally fall into three categories: persistent organic pollutants (POPs), endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), and heavy metals.
  • 825
  • 27 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Competitive Exclusion of Aspergillus flavus
The pre-harvest biocontrol approach currently used includes laboratory inoculations using non-aflatoxigenic strains of Aspergillus flavus. This strategy effectively suppresses the indigenous aflatoxigenic strains and reduces aflatoxin accumulation in sweetcorn.  The reduction in AFB1 with population expressions of AF+ strains by the AF− strains and supports the notion of competitive exclusion through vigorous development and propagation of the non-aflatoxigenic fungi. 
  • 824
  • 18 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Assays for Pertussis Toxin
One of the main virulence factors produced by Bordetella pertussis is pertussis toxin (PTx) which, in its inactivated form, is the major component of all marketed acellular pertussis vaccines. PTx ADP ribosylates Gαi proteins, thereby affecting the inhibition of adenylate cyclases and resulting in the accumulation of cAMP. Apart from this classical model, PTx also activates some receptors and can affect various ADP ribosylation- and adenylate cyclase-independent signalling pathways. Due to its potent ADP-ribosylation properties, PTx has been used in many research areas. Initially the research primarily focussed on the in vivo effects of the toxin, including histamine sensitization, insulin secretion and leukocytosis. Nowadays, PTx is also used in toxicology research, cell signalling, research involving the blood–brain barrier, and testing of neutralizing antibodies. However, the most important area of use is testing of acellular pertussis vaccines for the presence of residual PTx. In vivo models and in vitro assays for PTx often reflect one of the toxin’s properties or details of its mechanism.
  • 822
  • 16 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Bryophyte Heavy-Metal Tolerance
The biological effects of heavy metals have been studied in both animals and plants, ranging from oxidative stress to genotoxicity. Plants, above all metal-tolerant species, have evolved a wide spectrum of strategies to counteract exposure to toxic metal concentrations. 
  • 816
  • 04 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Commonalities in Amyloid Prefibrillar Oligomers
It has been proposed that a “common core” of pathologic pathways exists for the large family of amyloid-associated neurodegenerations, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, type II diabetes and Creutzfeldt–Jacob’s Disease. Aggregates of the involved proteins, independently from their primary sequence, induced neuron membrane permeabilization able to trigger an abnormal Ca2+ influx leading to synaptotoxicity, resulting in reduced expression of synaptic proteins and impaired synaptic transmission. Emerging evidence is now focusing on low-molecular-weight prefibrillar oligomers (PFOs), which mimic bacterial pore-forming toxins that form well-ordered oligomeric membrane-spanning pores. At the same time, the neuron membrane composition and its chemical microenvironment seem to play a pivotal role. However, up to now the existence of a specific “common structure” of the toxic aggregate, and a “common mechanism” by which it induces neuronal damage, synaptotoxicity and impaired synaptic transmission, is still an open hypothesis. In this review, we gathered information concerning this hypothesis, focusing on the proteins linked to several amyloid diseases. We noted commonalities in their structure and membrane activity, and their ability to induce Ca2+ influx, neurotoxicity, synaptotoxicity and impaired synaptic transmission.
  • 803
  • 02 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Review of Ionic Liquids Toxicity
Ionic liquids (more accurately room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs)) can be defined as materials composed of organic or inorganic cations (like imidazolium or pyridinium) and anions (e.g., nitrate, acetate, tetrafluoroborate, dicyanamide, bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide and lactate) that are liquid at or below 100 °C. The number of possible combinations of a cation and anion is estimated to reach 106, making it theoretically possible to synthesize an IL targeted for a specific application or property.
  • 799
  • 29 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Effects of Waterborne Cadmium Exposure on Zebrafish intestine
Cadmium (Cd) is an extremely toxic heavy metal released in the environment due to a plethora of anthropic processes. Here focused on the effects of two sublethal cadmium concentrations on cells of the gastrointestinal surface epithelium with particular attention to changes in the distribution of glycan residues and the morphological features of the intestine. To evaluate the defense response of the mucosa, the expression of metallothionein was investigated. Data demonstrate that cadmium modifies the presence and/or distribution of glycans in the brush border and cytoplasm of enterocytes and in the goblet cells cytoplasm. Results suggest a significant interference of cadmium, in dose and site-dependent manner, with mucosal efficiency. This effect could be a direct health risk for the organism exposed to the contamination and indirectly a risk for the trophic chain.
  • 793
  • 08 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Tetrodotoxin for Neuropathic&Cancer Pain Relief
Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is a potent neurotoxin found mainly in puffer fish and other marine and terrestrial animals. TTX blocks voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSCs) which are typically classified as TTX-sensitive or TTX-resistant channels. VGSCs play a key role in pain signaling and some TTX-sensitive VGSCs are highly expressed by adult primary sensory neurons. During pathological pain conditions, such as neuropathic pain, upregulation of some TTX-sensitive VGSCs, including the massive re-expression of the embryonic VGSC subtype NaV1.3 in adult primary sensory neurons, contribute to painful hypersensitization. In addition, people with loss-of-function mutations in the VGSC subtype NaV1.7 present congenital insensitive to pain. TTX displays a prominent analgesic effect in several models of neuropathic pain in rodents. According to this promising preclinical evidence, TTX is currently under clinical development for chemo-therapy-induced neuropathic pain and cancer-related pain.
  • 792
  • 21 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Methylmercury Neurotoxicity and Neuroinflammation
Methylmercury (MeHg) toxicity is a major environmental concern. In the aquatic reservoir, MeHg bioaccumulates along the food chain until it is consumed by riverine populations. The central nervous system is particularly susceptible to the deleterious effects of MeHg, as evidenced by clinical symptoms and histopathological changes in poisoned humans. In vitro and in vivo studies have been crucial in deciphering the molecular mechanisms underlying MeHg-induced neurotoxicity. A collection of cellular and molecular alterations including cytokine release, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, Ca2+ and glutamate dyshomeostasis, and cell death mechanisms are important consequences of brain cells exposure to MeHg. 
  • 765
  • 24 Jun 2021
Topic Review
SL-DT for Non-Genotoxic Carcinogen Testing
Dysregulation of gap junction intercellular communication (GJIC) is recognized as one of the key hallmarks for identifying non-genotoxic carcinogens (NGTxC). Currently, there is a demand for in vitro assays addressing the gap junction hallmark, which would have the potential to eventually become an integral part of an integrated approach to the testing and assessment (IATA) of NGTxC. The scrape loading-dye transfer (SL-DT) technique is a simple assay for the functional evaluation of GJIC in various in vitro cultured mammalian cells and represents an interesting candidate assay. Out of the various techniques for evaluating GJIC, the SL-DT assay has been used frequently to assess the effects of various chemicals on GJIC in toxicological and tumor promotion research. 
  • 763
  • 28 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Categories and Characteristics of Extracellular Vesicles
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are heterogeneous small membrane structures that originate from plasma membranes. Although most EVs have a diameter of 50–200 nm, larger ones are also observed. Generally, particles up to a diameter of 1000 nm are regarded as EVs. They are typically isolated from the conditioned media of cultured cells. The contents of EVs include proteins, mRNA, microRNA (miRNA), and nucleic acids. Each vesicle performs a specific function in transferring biological material(s) to induce biological processes, such as replication, growth, apoptosis, and necrosis.
  • 752
  • 27 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Wickerhamomyces Yeast Killer Toxins
Bacteriocins are ribosomally synthesized antimicrobial peptides produced from a wide variety of bacteria that inhibit the growth of similar or closely related bacterial strains. A similar phenomenon of competition is present in yeasts, based on the production of killer toxins (KTs, or mycocins) that are secreted proteins or glycoproteins capable of killing susceptible microorganisms with various mechanisms of action, through interaction with specific superficial receptors. Possible implications and applications of the yeast killer phenomenon in the fight against infectious diseases are reviewed in this work, with particular reference to some wide-spectrum killer toxins (KTs) produced by Wickerhamomyces anomalus and other related species. 
  • 745
  • 15 Oct 2021
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