Assessment of the impact of mycotoxins on the epigenome and their synergistic role with EBV in endemic Burkitt lymphoma in African children
Children with Cancer UK
International Agency for Research on Cancer
Chronic exposure to toxins (Mycotoxins) produced by moulds (Fungi) and infection with oncogenic viruses have been shown to increase a person’s chances of developing cancer; for example, the synergy between Aflatoxin B1(AFB1) and Hepatitis B virus infection have been shown to increase the development of Liver cancer 1. Burkitt’s lymphoma (BL) is a childhood cancer of the lymphatic system that is known to occur when the B-lymphocyte is infected with Epstein Barr virus 2, endemic Burkitt’s Lymphoma variant (eBL) occurs mostly in African regions prone to EBV and malaria infections 3. In addition, persons living in African regions are faced with unavoidable mycotoxins exposure. Mycotoxins are problematic in terms of acute exposure in staple crops especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), leading to mycotoxicosis outbreaks (e.g. aflatoxicosis) 4. A recent study estimated that about 60 to 80% of world’s food crops are contaminated with mycotoxins, meaning that dietary mycotoxins’ exposure is unavoidable 5, 6, 7. Generally, mycotoxins have caused both economic 8, 9, 10, 11 and health problems 12 such as carcinogenicity, hepatotoxicity, and genotoxicity. Therefore, chronic exposure to mycotoxins coincides with higher incidence of eBL across regions of Africa. Previous studies within our branch demonstrated that exposure to certain mycotoxins promotes EBV infection, and children in regions of Africa with high mycotoxin exposure and high incidence of BL also have higher EBV infection levels
2.2 Factors relating to physical environment