Application of cold atmospheric plasma for decontamination of toxigenic fungi and mycotoxins: a systematic review

Protocols of systematic reviews and meta-analyses allow for planning and documentation of review methods, act as a guard against arbitrary decision making during review conduct, enable readers to assess for the presence of selective reporting against completed reviews, and, when made publicly available, reduce duplication of efforts and potentially prompt collaboration. Evidence documenting the existence of selective reporting and excessive duplication of reviews on the same or similar topics is accumulating and many calls have been made in support of the documentation and public availability of review protocols. Several efforts have emerged in recent years to rectify these problems, including development of an international register for prospective reviews (PROSPERO) and launch of the first open access journal dedicated to the exclusive publication of systematic review products, including protocols (BioMed Central's Systematic Reviews). Furthering these efforts and building on the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) guidelines, an international group of experts has created a guideline to improve the transparency, accuracy, completeness, and frequency of documented systematic review and meta-analysis protocols--PRISMA-P (for protocols) 2015. The PRISMA-P checklist contains 17 items considered to be essential and minimum components of a systematic review or meta-analysis protocol.This PRISMA-P 2015 Explanation and Elaboration paper provides readers with a full understanding of and evidence about the necessity of each item as well as a model example from an existing published protocol. This paper should be read together with the PRISMA-P 2015 statement. Systematic review authors and assessors are strongly encouraged to make use of PRISMA-P when drafting and appraising review protocols. © BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 2014. Show more

Humans are constantly exposed to mycotoxins (e.g. aflatoxins, ochratoxins), mainly via food intake of plant and animal origin. The health risks stemming from mycotoxins may result from their toxicity, in particular their carcinogenicity. In order to prevent these risks, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon (France)-through its IARC Monographs programme-has performed the carcinogenic hazard assessment of some mycotoxins in humans, on the basis of epidemiological data, studies of cancer in experimental animals and mechanistic studies. The present article summarizes the carcinogenic hazard assessments of those mycotoxins, especially aflatoxins (aflatoxin B1, B2, G1, G2 and M1), fumonisins (fumonisin B1 and B2) and ochratoxin A (OTA). New information regarding the genotoxicity of OTA (formation of OTA-DNA adducts), the role of OTA in oxidative stress and the identification of epigenetic factors involved in OTA carcinogenesis-should they indeed provide strong evidence that OTA carcinogenicity is mediated by a mechanism that also operates in humans-could lead to the reclassification of OTA. Show more

Mycotoxins likely have existed for as long as crops have been grown but recognition of the true chemical nature of such entities of fungal metabolism was not known until recent times. Conjecturally, there is historical evidence of their presence back as far as the time reported in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Evidence of their periodic, historical occurrence exists until the recognition of aflatoxins in the early 1960s. At that time mycotoxins were considered as a storage phenomenon whereby grains becoming moldy during storage allowed for the production of these secondary metabolites proven to be toxic when consumed by man and other animals. Subsequently, aflatoxins and mycotoxins of several kinds were found to be formed during development of crop plants in the field. The determination of which of the many known mycotoxins are significant can be based upon their frequency of occurrence and/or the severity of the disease that they produce, especially if they are known to be carcinogenic. Among the mycotoxins fitting into this major group would be the aflatoxins, deoxynivalenol, fumonisins, zearalenone, T-2 toxin, ochratoxin and certain ergot alkaloids. The diseases (mycotoxicoses) caused by these mycotoxins are quite varied and involve a wide range of susceptible animal species including humans. Most of these diseases occur after consumption of mycotoxin contaminated grain or products made from such grains but other routes of exposure exist. The diagnosis of mycotoxicoses may prove to be difficult because of the similarity of signs of disease to those caused by other agents. Therefore, diagnosis of a mycotoxicoses is dependent upon adequate testing for mycotoxins involving sampling, sample preparation and analysis. Show more