Aflatoxin: A carcinogenic agent from the laboratory of nature

Abstract

Aflatoxins are natural mycotoxins, the secondary metabolites of many species of Aspergillus fungus, in the first place of Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Aflatoxin is a toxic and a very carcinogen substance. The most frequent is the aflatoxin B1 (AFB1 with the highest mutagenic effect. The appearance of aflatoxin in plant and animal foodstuff and its longterm consumption affects the human's health very adversely. The consequence of consuming the aflatoxin is a kind of poisoning known as aflatoxicosis. There are two forms of aflatoxicosis: first is a serious acute intoxication which directly leads into the damage of a liver and the other one is a chronic (longterm) exposure to this toxin without any visible symptoms. The introduction of aflatoxin into the organism increases the risk of canrcinogenesis.

Aflatoksini su prirodni mikotoksini, sekundarni metaboliti mnogih vrsta gljivica roda Aspergillus, prvenstveno Aspergillus flavus i Aspergillus parasiticus. Najviše je zastupljen aflatoksin B1 (AFB1) koj je svrstan u toksične i veoma kancerogene supstance jer ispoljava najjače mutageno dejstvo od svih aflatoksina. Pojava aflatoksina u namirnicama biljnog i životinjskog porekla i njihovo dugotrajno konzumiranje veoma negativno utiče na zdravlje ljudi. Aflatoksikoza je trovanje koje nastaje kao posledica unošenja aflatoksina. Postoje dva oblika aflatoksikoze: prvi je ozbiljno akutno trovanje, koje rezultira direktnim oštećenjem jetre a drugi oblik je hronična (dugotrajna) izloženost ovom toksinu bez vidljivih simptoma. Unošenje aflatoksina u organizam ima uticaj na povećanje rizika za razvoj kancera.