A pilot survey of aflatoxin-albumin adducts in sera from Egypt

Paul C Turner (1) , Christopher Loffredo (2) , Sharif El Kafrawy (3) , Sameera Ezzat (3) , Soheir Abdel Latif Eissa (4) , Mai El Daly (3) , Ola Nada (5) , Mohamed Abdel-Hamid (6)

1 Molecular Epidemiology Unit, Leeds Institute of Genetics, Health and Therapeutics
2 Lombardi Cancer Center, Georgetown University
3 National Liver Institute, Menoufiya University
4 National Cancer Institute, Cairo University
5 Université Ain Shams
6 Minia University

Aflatoxins are potent liver carcinogens that frequently contaminate dietary cereals within developing regions. Aflatoxin exposure has been predicted within Egypt but to date no studies have measured the level of aflatoxin-albumin (AF-alb) adducts as a validated biomarker to assess exposure. A limited number of sera were available from an HCC case control study within Egypt. In this pilot survey AF-alb was detected in 24/24 samples from individuals without HCC diagnosis (geometric mean 9.0pg/mg range 3.5-25.8pg/mg), whilst 7/22 samples from HCC cases had detectable AF-alb (geometric mean 2.6pg/mg (range nd – 32.8pg/mg). These AF-alb data do not represent a case control comparison due to inherent difficulties in comparing markers of dietary intake between controls and patients with disease. Although these data are limited, the potential health consequences of aflatoxin exposure in this region merit further investigation.

Mots clés: Life Sciences

Paul C Turner, Christopher Loffredo, Sharif El Kafrawy, Sameera Ezzat, Soheir Abdel Latif Eissa, et al.. A pilot survey of aflatoxin-albumin adducts in sera from Egypt. Food Additives and Contaminants, 2008, 25 (05), pp.583-587. ⟨10.1080/02652030701713939⟩. ⟨hal-00577434⟩