What is aflatoxin, and why is it dangerous?
Aflatoxins are toxins from the funguses ‘Aspergillus Flavus’ and ‘A. Parasiticus’ and can be found in many foods, herein peanuts, nuts, corn and dried fruits – i.e. figs and spices. These toxins are extremely carcinogenic, and they can cause acute liver damage if they are absorbed in very high concentrations. This is especially a problem in countries with a warm and humid climate, where the mentioned foods are an important part of the diet. This refers to tropical and subtropical regions in particular.
Gene profiles predict your risk of liver cancer
In large parts of the world, such as southeast Asia and Africa, exposure to aflatoxin is presumably the cause of up to 80 % of cases of liver cancer. Researchers have now found a way of determining if cells have been exposed to aflatoxin, thus predicting if a person is at high risk of developing liver cancer several years before cancer develops in the person’s liver. Using the so-called ‘base-sequence’ in DNA – decoding the genetic material, researchers can determine if the liver cells have been exposed to aflatoxin, based on knowledge of the genetic mutations. Aflatoxin will often convert the base ‘guanine’ to ‘thymine’ in the DNA, which creates great structural consequences for the DNA.
This observation is based on an examination of mice. Newly born mice had a tissue sample taken from their liver, were exposed to aflatoxin, and 10 weeks later another tissue sample was removed from their liver. Later, all the mice developed a malignant tumour in the liver, which the researchers extracted a tissue sample from as well. Here, they could see that already after 10 weeks – long before the mice had developed cancer – notable changes had occurred in their DNA. The researchers have later compared these changes with gene profiles of patients from all over the world with liver cancer. They have found that these were highly comparable, especially from southeast Asia and Africa, which are also believed to be the ones who are most exposed to aflatoxin in their diet.
The researchers hope to conduct a test to quickly establish the gene profile in patients and determine their risk profile. Those with a high-risk profile will be offered regular screenings to detect any newly developed tumours as early as possible, thus conducting a surgical intervention before the cancer has spread or increased to an incurable size.
